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IX 

High Places 



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History of a, Woman in a Trance, 






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WICKEDNESS 



IN HIGH PLACES; 



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The History of a Woman in a Trance. 



BY MRS. CHRISTIANA WRIGHT. 



WAUKESHA, WIS.: 

Published by the Authoress. 
1876. 







4> 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by 

Mrs. Christiana Wright. 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 



I was born at Courtwright, State of New York, in the year 1821. 
I am of Scotch descent, my father, Alexander McDonald, coming 
from Glasgow, and my mother, Isabella Allen, coming from Perith. 
Father and mother, one brother and six sisters were all members of 
the Coventer church, town of York, Livingston county. In the 
year 1826 my parents removed to York Center, in the same state, 
where my parents resided for about twenty years, and where I 
became acquainted with John Wright, and then removed to Racine 
county, in this State. And finally on the 10th day of September, 
1853, I was married to John Wright, who came West about one year 
before I did. Soon after which my husband purchased a farm in the 
south part of this county, and we began housekeeping. I bought 
all my things to keep house with, my cook stove I bought of Mr. 
Burroughs, of Waukesha, for I had a little money out at interest, 
which I received about two years before marriage. 

Here is a specimen of my honeymoon : When we were putting up 
the cook-stove, he being up stairs and I below, he gave me a 
jawing because I could not fix the pipe quick enough to suit him. I 
thought then that I had a very chiurlish Nabal to deal with. One of 
my first house-keeping experiments was his bringing me three pounds 



4 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

of sugar, and saying, " Now I want to see how long this will last." 
I thought it would last a good while for all of me, for I never let any 
of it pass my lips, but there was himself and one hired man who used 
tea or coffee three times a day, but he is not over it yet, as the wom- 
an who worked for him last year got nearly starved out. She made 
some plain cookies, and when she put them on the table he found so 
much fault, and jawed so much about it, that she would not make any 
more. 

And here is a specimen of his treatment to animals. The story 
of the Grey Mare and the Brindle Cow. He bought a grey mare 
from Mr. White, for ninety dollars, and worked her so hard, on the 
sawing machine, that she lost her colt, and was so weak that she could 
hardly go ; and then used her on the Sorghum Machine, while two 
other teams stood in the stable, and the last day he would not remove 
the pomice, which was up to her knees, because it was the last day's 
work, and at dinner time he would not unhitch, or give her food or 
drink, because he said that he conld finish by two or three o'clock; 
and then he screwed the nut down so tight that she could not turn the 
sweep, and Mathew Mann, who was helping him, told him the reason, 
but he would not fix it, he took the pitchfork and struck her with 
it, and then she could not turn it; he then stuck the pitchfork in her hip, 
this cruel treatment he repeated several times which resulted in break- 
ing off one of the tines, the blood gushing from the wound present- 
ed a fearful sight. This can be proved by four or five good wit- 
nesses. God says in his holy works that a merciful man is 
merciful to his beasts ; he then sold her to a neighbor for thirty dol- 
lars, he in turn sold her for five dollars, this is the way he made 
money. Then again we had a brindle cow, that we were fatting for 
beef, and we stabled her nights, and one day John went to Wau- 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 5 

kesha, and when he came back at night he asked the girl who worked 
for us, (as my youngest child was only a few days old), if Lemuel had 
put the cow in the stable, and she told him that he tried until he was 
almost frozen, and had to give it up, for she would not go behind the 
horses and mules, and he said that he had a good mind to take the ax 
and split his head open. Then he went out and tried to put her in 
himself, and could not do it, although he pounded until he broke one 
of her horns off, and then he had to give it up. 



A specimen of his falsehoods : He has told thai I went to Wauke- 
sha and ran him in debt at the stores, eighteen hundred dollars worth, 
and as much more in all the other stores in the country, which was 
a positive falsehood ; as all I had was about fifteen dollars worth 
out of Mr. Seller's store, in Waukesha, and that I did not get with- 
out his order. He either forgets or does not care. We read that all 
liars shall be turned into Hell. 



For several years past I did not go forward to communion for this 
reason, they would not settle my business, in the church. I have 
heard of late that they have said if I would commune with them that 
they would settle it, disregarding the scriptural command "That thou 
shalt first be recconciled to thy brother and then eat," that is what my 
bible teaches, but they must have some new way of doing business 
contrary to the command of our Heavnely Father. 

For all my years of hard labor he has never been the man to of- 
fer me one dollar for my maintainance. 

It has been hinted to me, if I would give him a divorce he would 
give me two thousand dollars. I do not know this to be the truth. 

My conscience will not allow me to give a divorce for lying, false 
swearing and abusing me, and crippling me for life. He never speaks 



b WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

or writes to me, he says he has a divorce from me, therefore he does 
not allow my children to speak to me, or call me mother. 

He had a plenty of money to buy furs and silk dresses for certain 
characterless persons in the neighborhood, but he did not have money 
to buy shoes for me, I was of no account, could go barefooted at home, 
and if I went to church I went barefooted; this no doubt he had thought 
would have a tendency to make his story true, in the estimation of 
the people, that I was insane. Surely some might say Mrs. Wright 
cannot be sane, I think if she was she would not go to church bare- 
footed. I will leave thes for my friends to judge whether they think it 
was me that was insane, or the man that did not provide me with the 
neccessary means to go to church looking decent and respectable. 

Tim. 8. If any provide not for his own, and specially for those 
of his own house he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an 
infidel. 

This same summer that he could not afford to buy any thing for me y 
I spun 20 lbs of wool for Mr. McClusky to pay him for ploughing 
land to plant to beans. I planted two acres of beans, and after I had 
done this work he would not let me pull them, but let them rot on the 
ground. Besides doing this work I did my own house work, raised 
six hundred chickens, and spun701bs of rolls for blankets. When he 
drove me awey he gave me nothing. 

Spinning was old business of mine. I bought the first year that I 
came to Wisconsin, 180 lbs of wool of Alfred Judd, and the next year 
150 lbs of Mr. Malaney, worked it up into stocking yarn. The pro- 
ceeds for this I bought deer skin and worked it up into gloves and mit- 
tens; these I sold and had over $300, ready money when Iwas mar- 
ried and furnished my house throughout with it. 

If I had kept on spinning and given John a mitten, instead of mar- 
rying him I might have had a handsome fortune now, rather than the 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 



long years of hard labor. 

Prov. xxxi. 13 She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh will- 
ingly with her hands. 



This may certify that I acted as an attorney in a suit Messenger 
against John Wright ; this was a suit brought by Messenger to re- 
cover a certain sum for the board of Mrs. John Wright, and for tak- 
ing care of her while at the said Messenger's house. This suit was 
defended by the defendant John Wright, on the grounds that he had 
advertised in the newspaper and she had run away from the defend- 
ant's house and that was not liable to pay for her board or doctor's- 
bill. On the trial of this case the plaintiff was compelled to show 
that she left the defendant's house inconsequence of the defendant's 
abuse and that by the cruel treatment , it was not safo for her to re- 
main in John Wright's house, it also appeared from the testimony 
in that case satisfactory and the Court Chauncey G. Heath, Mrs. 
John Wright had been for years, most shamefully ill-treated and 
cruelly abused. It also appeared in evidence that the said John 
Wright had been guilty of rape in and of unwarrentable liberties with 
a young lady who was a member of the Covenanter Church; and that 
he had made Miss Welch, a present of a set of furs worth seventy 
dollars, also on the trial of said cause the said John Wright sent an 
anonymous letter to the justice before where the case was pending 
to the effect that if the judgement in that case should be rendered in 
favor of the defendant that he the justice would find fifty dollars at 
the post-office for him. This was evidently on a thought to bribe 
the court in that case. 

John Wright proposed to me that if I would proceed and obtain a 
bill of divorce for Mrs. John Wright against him that he would pay 
all expense for the same. I made known to Mrs. John Wright, this 



8 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

proposition of her husband and she absolutely refused to apply for a 
bill saying that it was against the rules of the Church to which she 
belonged. This is a brief statement of facts in this case which I 
know, and I give this statement to Mrs. John Wright by her request. 

Waukesha, January 25th, 1869. 
W. S. Hawkins, Attorney. 

I could not find out where he was, his people not letting me know 
anytning about it, I got a hint of his where-abouts when it was too 
late, he had returned with a bill of divorce, after finding it out I sent 
to Indiana for a copy of it which I got. He testifies on his bill that 
I did not live with him as his wife, which I can testify is a false oath. 
Second, he testifies I left him, and his infant children, which I also 
oan testify is a false oath, as I can prove I have no infant children 
and he took my children away from me over three years before, with- 
out any cause or reason. He also testifies that I had nothing in way 
of property which I can testify is another false oath. I can testify 
that my son Lemuel A. Wright's oath is a false one saying he never 
saw his father abuse me for I can prove that he saw him abuse me 
several times. I can testify that Martha McLaughlins' and Charles 
McLaughlins oaths are fake. 

Instead of leaving him he threatened to kill me and I was glad to 
get away with my life. I went back several times and told him that 
I was willing to go back and live with him if he would not abuse me 
and I am willing yet if he will not abuse me. 

He came to me in the corn field and as I would husk a peck of 
corn he would snatch it away from me and call me everything he could 
lay his tongue to, and said he wanted me to sign off my right and 
title to the place, and he would give me my part I told him I was 
afraid to trust him as he had cheated me so many times. He said he 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. tf 

had a mind to thrash me. I told him he could do no more than to 

kill me. 

Christiana Wright. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 25th day of January 1869. 

W. S. Hawkins, Justice of the Peace. 



Copy of 

Proceedings in case of divorce 

of 

John Wright, vs. Christiana Wright, 

in 

Vigo County Court of Common Pleas 

in 
State of Indiana. 

Be it remembered to-wit: At a court of Common Pleas in and for 

the South judicial District of the State of Indiana began and held in 

the city of Terra Haute, Vigo County, on the 20th day of April, A. 

D. 1868, and continued by adjournment from day to day till Monday 

the 27th day of April, A. D. 1868, the same being the 7th judicial 

day of April term before the Hon. S.F.Maxwell, sole judge of said 

court when the following proceedings were had in the cause of 



No. 2394 



John Wright 

vs. J> Complaint 

Christiana Wright 



John Wright complains of Christiana Wright, and says that the 
Plaintiff and the Defendant were lawfully married on the 10th day of 
September 1853 and lived together as husband and wite for several 
years ; that they had four children by the said marriage who are now 
alive, viz: Lemuel A. Wright aged twelve years, Sarah Jane aged 
ten, Alice aged seven years, and Herman aged five years. The 
Plaintiff says he has always performed faithfully all his marital duties 



10 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

toward the Defendant, has treated her with uniform kindness and 
provided for all her wants the best he could ; that about three years 
ago the Defendant without any cause abandonded the Plaintiff, leaving 
the infant children to his care ; that she has returned two or three 
times to his house and remained'a few days but refused to live with 
Plaintiff as his wife ; that she left Plaintiff more than a year ago to- 
wit: in Sept. 1866 without cause and has ever since remained away 
from him and has persistently refused to return to the Plaintiff ; the 
Plaintiff has repeatedly entreated defendant to return, that she has re 
fused to see him lately ; that defendant has lost all love and regard 
for plaintiff and there is no hope for recconciliation between the par- 
ties. The Plaintiff says he is now a resident of Vigo County and has 
been for the past year a bona fide resident of this State. He says De- 
fendant brought nothing whatever in the way of property to the mar- 
riage and he asks on the hearing the Court will grant him a divorce 
from defendant and dissolve the banns of matrimony between them, 
will grant Plaintiff the care and custody of said children and he asks 
for any other neccessary relief. 

Baird and Craft, Att'ys for Pl'ff 

Copy of Summons. 
State of Indiana, Vigo County, ss. 

To the Sheriff of said County, greeting: you are hereby commanded 
to summon Christiana Wright to appear in the Vigo Common Pleas 
Court on the second day of the next term thereof to be held at the Court 
House in Terra Haute on the 3d Monday in April 1868 then and there 
to answer the complaint of John Wright for divorce and of this sum- 
mons to make due return. 

Witness the Clerk and seal of the court this 14th day February 
1868. 

Rufus H. Simpson, Clerk of Vigo Common Pleas Court, came to 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 11 

hand Feb. 14, 1868. The Defendant notfound on my Cailewic.She is 
not a resident of the State of Indiana. 

John Kiger, Sheriff. 

John Wright ) 

No. 2394 vs > Divorce 

Christiana Wright \ 

Comes plaintiff by Baird and Craft and they move to make proof of 
publication herein, which is ordered and they now file it verified by 
affidavit showing the court that the defendant had due notice of the 
pendency of this suit by publication for three weeks successively thirty 
days prior to the first day of the present term of this court in the Wa- 
bash Express a weekly newspaper printed in Vigo County Indiana. 

Copy of Proof of Publication. 
State of Indiana, Vigo County, ss. * 

R. S. Westfall having been first duly sworn on his oath says he is 
the City Editor of the Terra Haute Fxpress a newspaper of general 
circulation printed and published in the City of Terra Haute in the 
County and State aforesaid and that the annexed notice was published 
in said paper for three weeks successively commencing on the 5th day 
of Feb, 1868. 

R. S. Westfall. 
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 27th day of April, 1868. 

R. H. Simpson, Clerk 

State of Indiana \ ss. Vigo Common Pleas Court, Apr. term. 
Vigo County \ 

John Wright ) 

vs > Divorce. 

Christiana Wright ) 

On this day to-wit the 14th day of February A. D. 1868 comes the 
plaintiff by Baird and Craft his Attorneys and files his complaint here- 
in, also the return of the Sheriff to the summons issued herein showing 



12 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

that the defendant is a non-resident of the state of Indiana, notice is 
therefore hereby given to the said defendant of the filing and pendency 
and that the same will be heard and determined at the next term of our 
said court commencing on the third Monday of April next A. D. 1868. 

Attest: Rufus H. Simpson, Clerk,now on motion ordered that de- 
fendant be three times called and it is done, but she comes not but 
makes default. 

The following are the depositions in the above entitled cause. 

State of Indiana, Vigo County, ss. — The State of Indiana to any 
person authorized to take depositions in the County of Waukesha, 
Wisconsin, know you that we trusting in your ability and provident 
•ciscumstances in the diligent examination of witnesses as well in be- 
half of John Wright plaintiff as Christiana Wright defendant in a cer- 
tain cause now pending and undetermined in our Common Pleas Court 
in and for our said County of Vigo, command you that on the 30th day 
of March between the hours of 8 A. M. and 6 P. M. and from day to 
day thereafter so long as may be neccessary you call and cause to come 
before you at the law office of Vernon Tichenor Esq. in the town of 
Waukesha, Wisconsin, John McLaughlin, Mathew Wright and such 
other persons as the said parties or either of them may require and then 
you diligently examine upon their oaths in all things touching or con- 
cerning the said cause and their examination in our said court to be 
holden at Terra Haute, in our said County on the third Monday of 
April 1868, next you plainly and destinctly under your hand and seal 
send certified and enclosed together with this writ. 

Witness, Rufus H. Simpson Clerk of our said Court at 
[Seal] Terra Haute, the 7th day of March in the year of our Lord 

one thousand eight hundred sixty eight. 

Rufus H. Simpson,. 
Depositions of Mathewt Wright, John McLaughlin, Charles Mc- 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 13 

Laughlin and Martha McLaughlin, witnesses produced and sworn to 
before me a Notary Public in and for the County of Waukesha, in the 
State of Wisconsin and residing in the village of Waukesha in Wauke- 
sha County and State of Wisconsin on the 30th day of March A. D. 
1868, pursuant to the enclosed notice and commission. These depo- 
sitions are taken on the part of the Plaintiff in a certain action now 
pending in the Common Pleas Court of Vigo County in the State of In- 
diana wherein John Wright is plaintiff, Christiana Wright is defend- 
ant. 

The said Matthew Wright being duly sworn to testify the truth the 
whole truth and nothing but the truth relating to said cause deposes as 
follows: 

Examination by plaintiff. 

Question 1. What is your name place of residence and age? 

Answer. My name is Matthew Wright, I reside in the town of Wau- 
kesha, County of Waukesha and State of Wisconsin, and 
my age is forty five years. 

Q 2. Do you know the plaintiff John Wright and the defend- 

ant Christiana Wright his wife? Also how long have 
you known them? 

A. I knew them. I have known the plaintiff ever since his 

infancy and known the defendant about twenty seven years. 

Q. 3. State under what circumstances you have known them 

and where? 

A. I am a brother of the plaintiff ; the plaintiff and defend- 

ant are husband and wife ; they were married in the State 
Wisconsin about thirteen or fourteen years ago; and I knew 
that they lived together as husband and wife in Waukesha 
County in the State of Wisconsin from the time of their mar- 
riage until in or about the month of November in the year 



14 WICKEDNESL IN HIGH PLACES. 

1866. For about eight years preceding that time they 
resided and lived together in the town of Waukesha in Wau- 
kesha County, in Wisconsin. 

Q4. Have the parties any children? If yea state how many 

their names and age? 

A. They have four children, Lemuel Allen aged about twelve 

years, Sarah Jane aged about eleven years, Isabellea Allieon 
aged about seven years and Herman Wallace aged six years. 
These children are now living and are the children of their 
marriage. They now reside in the town of Waukesha in 
Waukesha County, Wisconsin. The two boys live with 
their uncle James Wright and the two girls live with their 
uncle William Wright. 

Q. State how the plaintiff treated defendant and supported 

her while they lived together and to the time of their sepa- 
ration? 

A. He generally so far as I knew always treated her well 

and made reasonable provision for her support. 

Q. 6. How did the defendant demean and conduct herself 
while the parties lived together? 

A. I know that the defendant left the plaintiff and home 

several times before she left him finally. In or about 
November 1866 she left his house and home and did not 
return to him again. To the best of my recollection she 
left him in the latter part of November 1866. She has 
not returned to him again. She left her oldest child with 
her husband, when she left the others were with their uncles 
where they now are ; she has never taken them to live 
with her. On one occasion when the defendant had left the 
plaintiff before their final separation. I heard the plaintiff 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 15 

ask her to go home with him and she refused. 

<j. 7. Do you know how the children of the parties you have 

named came to reside with James and William ? And if 
so state how. 

A. They were placed there by their father John S. Wright. 

•Q. 8. State all you know of the cause of the separation of 
parties? 

A. I know of no good cause the defendant had for leaving 

the plaintiff. I do not think she had any good cause for 
leaving him. I have seen her abuse and ill-treat him by 
scolding ; I often saw the parties together and from my 
observation he treated her as well and as kind as men gen- 
erally do their wives. I never saw him mistreat here 
When the defendant left plaintiff she went to the neigh- 
bors and wandered about the country from place to place 
staying a few days at one place and a few weeks at anoth- 
er, and so she has continued to live the most of the time 
since she left the plaintiff. In my opinion there is not the 
least probability of a reconciliation between the Plaintiff' 
and Defendant. 

Q. 9. Do you know when the Plaintiff left Wisconsin? If so 

state when. 

A. The plaintiff left Wisconsin on the 13th day of February 

1867, according to my recollection of the time. I took him to 
the Railroad Depot at Milwaukee in Wisconsin and saw 
him get his ticket. He took a southern Rail Road train 
and has not returned here since to reside. Before goino- 
he broke up housekeeping and sold his goods. 

Q. 10. Where has the plaintiff resided for the past year? 

A. From the direction he went when he left Wisconsin and 



16 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

from letters received from him since, I understand that he 
has lived during the past year or most of it in the State of 
Indiana. I have seen letters from him during that time and 
they were dated and mailed in Indiana. The letters were 
written by the plaintiff. 

Matthew Wright. 
Sworn taken and subscribed before me March 30th, A. D. 1868. 

Vernon Tichenor 
Notary Public, Waukesha County, Wisconsin. 
Here the further examination of witnesses on the part of the said 
plaintiff was continued by me until March 31st, A. D. 1868, at 
eight oclock in the forenoon. 

Vernon ticaenor, Notary Public, 

Waukesha County, Wisconsin. 
March 31st, 1868. 

The examination of the plaintiffs witnesses was resumed, and the 
said Martha McLaughlig being duly sworn to testify the truth the 
whole truth and nothing but the truth relating to said cause deposes 
as follows: 

Question 1. What is your name, place of residence and age? 

Answer. My name is Martha McLaughlin. I reside in the town 
of Vernon, Waukesha County in Wisconsin and I am forty- 
two years of age. 

Q. 2. Do you know the parties to this action? If yea how long 
have you known them? 

A. I know them. I have known them eight years this 

spring. 

Q. 3. Where have they lived during that time and how far from 
you? 

A. They resised during that time until John Wright left the 






WICKEDNDSS IK HIGH PLACES. 



17 



State of Wisconsin in or about February 1867 about a mile 
from me ; during that time they lived together as husband 
and wife. 

Q. 4. How did they live together during that time. 

A. During that time Mrs. Wright often left the plaintiff and 

went and stayed with the neighbors. She staid with me at 
one time for three weeks, during that time she left her fami- 
ly at home. 

Q. 5. When did the defendant finally leave the plaintiff? 

A. She left him in the latter part of November 1866 on 

Thanksgiving clay and never returned to live with him ; 
she left her husband and one child at home; the other three 
children were living with their uncles James and William in 
the same town. 

Q. 6. State what you know about the cause of separation. 

A. I know of no cause she had to leave him ; I often vis- 

ited the parties ; the plaintiff's general treatment t} the de- 
fendant was good and kind ; I thought he supplied her 
wants well. 

Q. 7. State what you think of the possible reconciliation of the 
parties. 

A. I think there is no possibility of reconciliation between 

the parties ; she has told me at different times that she 
would never live with him. At one time fefore she finally 
left him she came to my house, and he came after her and 
asked her to go home with him and she refused and did not 
go. He told her she was injuring her health in running 
about ; she said she did not care, she would not go. The 
plaintiff furnished the defendant a good home. In my opin- 
ion she had no good reason for leaving the plaintiff. While 



18 WICKEDNESS IN HIG-H PLACES. 

they lived together they lived as husband and wife. 

Q. 8. Where has the defendant lived since she left the plaint- 

iff? 

A. She has spent the most of the time in running about the 

country from house to house. 

Q. 9. j^here does the plaintiff now reside? 

A. I know by information that he resides in Indiana but 

have no personal knowledge of the fact. 

Martha McLaughlin. 

Sworn, taken, and subscribed before me this 31st day of March, A. 
D. 1868. 

£Seal] Vernon Tichenor, Notary Public. 

Waukesha County, Wisconsin. 

The said Charles McLaughlin being duly sworn to tell the truth 
the whole truth and nothing but the whole truth relating to said cause 
deposes as follows : 

Q. I. J^hat is your name place of residence and age? 

A. My name is Charles McLaughlin, I reside in the town of 

Vernon, in Waukesha County in the State of Wisconsin and 
my age is fifty-two years. 

Q. 2. Do you know the plaintiff John Wright and the defend- 

ant Christiana Wright? And if yea how long have you 
known them? 

A. I am well acquainted with them and have been ever since 

eight years ago this spring. 

Q. 3. Do you know anything about the defendant's leaving the 

plaintiff and if anything what? 

A. I knew that on several occasions while the parties lived 

together the defendant left the plaintiff and stayed away 
from him and her family sometimes several days and some- 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 19 

times several weeks. On two occasions once at my house 
I heard the plaintiff request the defendant to go home 
with him and both times she refused. About a year ago 
last September, the defendant was riding with me in a 
wagon and I advised her to go home and live with her hus- 
band ; she declared she would never live with him. I have 
heard her say that she would never live with him. 

Q. 4. Where have the parties resided during the time you have 

known them and how far from your place of residence? 

A. During that time the parties resided in the town of Wau- 

kesha in Waukesha County in Wisconsin, until John Wright 
went away in February 1867. I lived about one mile from 
them. 

Q. 5. State what you know in reference to the defendants 

leaving the plainiiff? 

A. She left the plaintiff and her family in the latter part of 

November 1866, on Thanksgiving day and never returned 
to the plaintiff to live with him. 

Q. 6 Where were the children of the plaintiff and the defendant 

when she left her home? 

A. One child was at her home with the plaintiff. The oth- 

ers were then with their uncles James and William in the 
town of Waukesha in Waukesha County in Wisconsin. 

Q. 7. State if you can the cause of the defendant leaving the 

plaintiff. 

A. I know of no cause the defendant had for leaving the 

plaintiff and think she had no good cause for doing so. 

Q. 8. State what you knew of the plaintiffs treatment of the 

defendant while they lived together. 

A. He always treated her kindly as far as I know and he 



20 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

provided for her well according to his circumstances. 
Q. 9. What is your opinion of the probability of a reconcilia- 
tion between the parties. I heard the defendant say in 
October and November last that she would never live with 

John Wright again. 

Charles McLaughlin. 

Sworn taken and subscribed before me this 31 day of March A. D. 

1868. 

Vernon Tichenor Notary Public. 

Waukesha County, Wisconsin. 

Here the further examination of Plaintiff's witnesses was continued 
until April 1, 1868 at eight o'clock at which time the examination was 
resumed. 

The said John McLaughlin being duly sworn to testify the truth the 
whole truth and nothing but the truth relating to said cause deposes as 
follows: 

Q. 1. What is your name place of residence and age? 

A. My name is John McLaughlin, I reside in the town of 

Vernon, County of Waukesha in Wisconsin. My age is 18 

years and nearly 19. 
Q. 2. Do you know John Wright and Christiana Wright his 

wife, the parties to this action? and if yea how long have 

you known them and under what circumstances? 
A. lam well acquainted with both the parties have known 

them about eight years ; and during that time have lived 

about a mile and a half from them and was occasionally at 

their house and often met them elsewhere. 
Q. 3. Do you know any thing about Mrs. ^right's leaving her 

husband the plaintiff? and if you do state what. 
A. I recollect that the defendant Mrs. Wright left her husband 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 21 

and his family several times before she left him finally, and 
wandered about the country. She left him finally on 
Thadksgiving day the last Thursday of November in the 
year 1866 and went to the village of Waukesha in the town 
and county of Waukesha about five miles distant from her 
home and went to the house of Henry A. Messenger and 
stayed there several weeks. On the first day of December 
1866, the plaintiff John Wright got a two horse carriage and 
went to Mrs. Messenger's house after his wife and I went 
with him. He edeavored to get her to go home with him but 
failed and was obliged to go home without her* He did go 
home and left her at Messenger's. She never returned to 
live with her husband the plaintiff after that. When Mr. 
Wright went to Messengers house after Mrs. Wright, he went 
into the house and told Mrs. Messenger he had come with 
a carriage for his wife and wanted to take her home and that 
he had a good home for her. Mr. Messenger told him he 
could not take her home and refused to let him see her. 

John McLaughlin. 
Sworn taken and subscribed before me April 1, A. D. 1868. 
Vernon Tichenor, Notary Public 

Waukesha County, Wisconsin. 

State of Wisconsin, ) 

> ss 
Waukesha County ) 

I Vernon Tichenor, a Notary Public, and for said County, hereby 
certify that the above named witnesses, Matthew Wright, Martha Mc- 
Laughlin, Charles Mclaughlin and John McLaughlin were by me first 
duly sworn according to law to testify the truth the whole truth and 
nothing but the truth relating to said cause, that their depositions 



22 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

weie reduced to writing by me, that the said Christiana Wright was 
not present, and said depositions were taken at the Law Office of 
Vernon Tichenor, Esq., in the town of Waukesha in Waukesha Coun- 
ty and State of Wisconsin, on the thirtieth and thirty-first days of 
March, and on the first day of April A. D. 1868 between the hours of 
eight o'clock in the forenoon and six o'clock in the afternoon of said 
days to-wit: That said deposition of the witness Martha McLaughlin 
and Charles McLaughlin were taken on the thirty-first day of March? 
1868 ; and the deposition of the witnessess John McLaughlin was ta- 
ken on the first day of April 1868 and between the hours of eight 
o'clock A. M. and six o'clock P. M. of said respective days. 

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and notorial seal; 
this first day of April A. D. 1868. 

Vernon Tichenor, Notary Public, in and for the County of Wauke- 
sha in the State of Wisconsin. 

And afterwards to-wit: on Tuesday the 28th day of April, the same 
being the 8th judicial day of said term the following proceedings were 
had in the cause of 

John Wright j 

vs > Divorce. 

Christiana Wright } 

Comes now the Plaintiff by Baird & Craft, his counsel, and the proof 
of publication having been made and the Defendant having been three 
times called and made default, and still making default, this cause on 
motion is now submitted to the Court for trial without a jury and the 
plaintiff and that all the allegationst in his complaint are true and that 
he is entitled to his divorce. 

It is therefore considered by the Court that the hands of matrimony 
existing between the plaintiff and defendant are hereby declared to be 
dissolved and are to be held for naught and void as though they never 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACEL. 23 

I 

existed ; as if the parties had never been married and as if the de- 
fendant was dead. And it is further ordered and decreed by the 
court that the custody of Lemuel A. Wright, Sarah Jane Wright, 
Alice Wright and Herman Wright, the children of the parties be and 
the same are hereby awarded to the Plaintiff and that the plaintiff pay 
the cost herein taxed at $. . . . 

State of Indiana ) 

> ss Court of Common Pleas. 
County of Vigo \ 

I Rufus H. Simpson, Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of the 
County of Vigo in the State of Indiana, do hereby certify that the 
foregoing is a true and complete copy of the proceedings and judge- 
ment of said court in the above settled cause as the same appears of 
record in my office. 

In testimony whereof I hereunto subscribe my name and hereto 
affix the seal of said Court of Common Pleas at my office in the City 
of Terra Haute, this 28th day of May, A. D. 1868. 

[Seal] 

Rufus H. Simpson, 

Clerk of C. C. P. Vigo Co., Indiana. 
I C. D. Trumbull, Stated Clerk of Iowa Presbytery of the Re- 
formed Presbyterian Church hereby certify that the above • is a true 
copy of a paper now on file in my house in Morning Sun, Iowa. 
Given under my hand this 6th day of July A. D. 1875. 

Charles D. Trumbull, 
Stated Clerk of Iowa, Presb. R. P. Ch. 



Items No. 18. unfinished business ; commission to settle difficul- 
ties at Vemon, R. B. Cannon, Chairman. The Commission report- 
ed, report accepted and approved and is as follows: 



24 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

To the Moderator and other members of the Idwa Church, October 
13, 1868. 

The commission appointed to meet in Vernon Church and adjudi- 
cate cases of diciplin, they met at that place according to agreement 
on the 14th day of Sept. 

D. T. Wilson of Sharon congregation being present, as a ruling 
elder. Parties concerned were present. After ascertaining the na- 
tur of the case and the parties implicated the commission proceeded 
to frame a libel against John Wright. He spent three days taking 
testimony and spent a part of two other days in going after testimony 
that could not not be got before us in onr regular place of meeting, 
without attempting to come to any decission we refund the case, sim- 
plicater, to Presbytery. The records of the commission and all the 
papers in the case will be submitted by the Clerk. 
R.'B. Cannon Ch'n of Com. 

The case was laid on the table for the present. 

Items No. 18, unfinished business again taken up. Mr. D. T. 
Wilson member of the commission was invited to sit as a consulta- 
tion member of the court during the investigation of the case. 

The minister of the Commission and the testimony in the 
case was read. 

The libel against John Wright contained three counts, namely : 

1 Adultry. 2 Abusing his wife. 3 By obtaining a divorce by- 
falsely charging his wife with desertion. And each count Presby 
tery voted the charge not proven. 



Morning Sun, Iowa. Jan. 7, 1876. 
Mrs. C Wright: 

Yours, post-marked Jan. 4, received. The only papers relating to 
your case, which I have in my possession are, 1. The charge brought 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 25 

by you against John Wright before the Commission of Iowa Presby- 
tery R. P. Church, Sept. 14, 1868 and the Libel founded thereon. 
2. The testimony taken before said Commission. 3. The copy 
of divorce a copy of which you have. 4. A copy of testimony in case 
of State against John Wright taken before J. R. Carpenter, justice 
of Peace, May 19, 1868, which testimony is said to be on file in office 
of said J. R. Carpenter J. P. 

Yours (fee 

CD. Trumbull. 
Stated Clerk, IowaPresb. R. P Church. 



Morning Sun, Iowa, 1876. 
Mrs. C.Wright: Yours received. After consideration of the 
matter I have concluded not to copy or forward the papers you ask for 
nntil requested by the proper officers of the Court before which you 
prosecute. Yours very truly 

CD. Trumbull. 



THE LAW OF A LIBEL. 

A subscriber requests an answer to the following inquiries : 

I. What is the law of the Church in regard to a private member 
belling a minister? 

II. Before what court must a libel or a complaint be brought? 

III. When a complaint is made, must charges be specified? 

IV. Must a libel upon a minister be transfered by session? 

V. When a session refuses to transfer, what course should be 
adopted? 

The book of Diciplin is sufficiently explicit in regard to "processes 
on account of scandal," &c— pp. 68-79, edition of 1863. 
1. Any member can libel a minister. 



26 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

II. "The presbytery, in case of ministers, * * is the competent 
authority to commence and finish a process for scandal." p. 70 

III. " When a process is entered at the instance of a person or 
persons, such person or persons shall present to the judicatory a writ- 
ten statement containing the charge, the time and place of the offence, 
and the names of all the witnesses." "These, the judicatory ** * 
shall put into the form of a libel." p. 72. 

The difference between "making a complaint" and "entering a pro- 
cess," i. e. libelling, is simply this : In the latter case the accuser be- 
comes a party, and so "is liabel to censure, if on investigation it ap- 
pears that he has acted from malicious motives in making his accusa- 
tion." p. 71. In the former case the court, session or presbytery, 
commences the process ( p. 71) , and really is the accuser, p. 72. 
The one who makes the complaint is responsible only "for the truth 
of the charge." p. 72. 

IV. No. See II. 

V. Protest and appeal to presbytery. 

The only difference between the trial of a minister and a private 
member, is in the court in which the trial takes place. In all other 
respects the rules and regulations are the same. 



Milwaukee, Dec. 14th, 1875. 
Mrs. Chtistiana Wright. 

Madam: — Further reflections concerning your 
matter has not at all changed my mind ; but on the contrary has 
only confirmed me in the I expressed to you when here some weeks 
since. I know of no way you can reach any of the property except 
through a suit for a divorce, either from bed and board, or from the 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 27 

bonds of matrimony. 

Whenever you are prepared to take that course I shall be ready to 
proceed in the action upon twenty-four hours notice. 

I consider that Indiana divorce of no force or effect whatever, and 
that you are as much the wife of Mr. John Wright just as fully and 
completely as you ever was or as though the decree had never been 
made. Your rights have not been impaired or affected the one way 
or the other by that proceeding. Perhaps when you have time and 
opportunity you better come and see me again in reference to the 
matter. 

Yours respectfully 

A. C. Fraser. 



Psalm 40. 

I waited for the Lord my God, 

and patiently did bear ; 
At length to me he did incline 

my voice and cry to hear. 

He took me trom a fearful pit, 

and from the miry clay, 
And on a rock he set my feet, 

establishing my way. 

He put a new song in my mouth, 

our God to magnify: 
Many shall see it, and shall fear, 

and on the Lord rely. 

blessed is the man whose trust 

upon the Lord relies ; 
Respecting not the proud, nor such 

as turn aside to lies. 



28 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 



POLYGAMY. 

It is one of the marvels of this age, that a practice so contrary to 
law and decency as polygamy should be allowed to continue in a 
country claiming to be civilized. The fact however is, that within 
the United States a community exists, influential in numbers and 
wealth, where this is practiced, and the right to do so is a tenet of 
their religious creed. Low indeed is the standard of public morality 
that can tolerate the continuance of this evil. 

It seems almost like an insult to the intelligence of our readers, to 
present any argument to show that this practice is an outrage on 
the natural and revealed law. Yet as familiarity with vice is likely 
to smooth its odious features, and sometimes leads to think favorably 
of it, we shall present a few considerations to show that this form of 
wickedness is 

"A monster of so foul a mein, 
That to be hated needs but to be seen." • 

I. It is condemned by the light of nature. The near equality of 
both sexes in number is a revelation by nature of the will of God on 
this subject. Though perfect accuracy in regard to the proportion 
of the male to the female population is not attainable, the approxima- 
tion is near enough to show, that when the number of both sexes who 
do not marry and the number who marry oftner than once are taken 
into consideration, it is manifest that the ordinance contemplated one 
man and one woman alone, as the parties to be united. 

II. It is contrary to the law of nature. "Husbands love your 
wives," is nature's voice iterated and enforced by revelation. But a 
man can no more love two wives than he can serve two masters ; he 
will love the one and hate the other. Thas which violates the law of 
marriage, is at war with the ordinance of marriage. 

III. It is opposed to the orriginal institution of marriage. We 
find the institution in Gen. 2 : 23-26, and the re-affirmation of it by 
Christ in Matt. 19 : 4-5 : "He who made them at the beginning, 
made them male and female ; and said, For this cause shall a man 
leave father and mother, and cleave unto his wife ; and they twain 
shall be one flesh." There was but one wife made for Adam, and 
the terms of agreement are, a man, one man, shall cleave to his wife, 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 29 

one wife ; and they two, no more, shall be one flesh, 

IV. It is inconsistent with the symbolical use of marriage. Eph. 
4 : 22 : "The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the 
Head of the church," There is but one church, and the church has 
but one head. Two heads to one body, or two bodies to one head, 
would be monstrous. Polygamy would destroy marriage as an em- 
blem of the union of the church with Christ. 

V. It is contradicted by the direct teachings of Scripture. 1 
Cor. 7:2: u Let every man have his own wife, and every woman 
her own husband." Eph. 5 : 28 : "He that loveth his wife, loveth 
himself;" ver. 23, "Let every one of you, in particular, so love his 
wife as himself." These words husband and wife, in the singular 
number, are used in these passages in an exclusive sense. 

It is sometimes argued, in favor of polygamy, 

I. That good men of old had more than one wife. We answer to 
this : 1. Their family dissentions are standing protests against the 
unnatural practice. 2. The examples of good men are to be follow- 
ed only when they are in accordance with the divine law. And, 3. 
"The times of this ignorance, God winked at ; but now commandeth 
all men every where to repent." Acts 17 : 30. 

II. That it is sanctioned by Deut. 21 : 15-17. We answer, 1. 
Directions in Direction in regard to the results of acts, are not to be 
taken as approvals of them. God gave directions in the case of Ha- 
£ar and her son ; but we are not to infer that her concubinage with 
Abraham was right. 2. The passage may be fairly explained of 
two wives, not at the same time, but in succession. 

III. That there is an implied permission of polygamy in the qual- 
ification for church officers — "The husband of one wife." 1 Tim. 
3 : 2 and 12 ; Titus 1 : 6. We answer, 1. That cannot be a good 
practice that is forbidden to an elder or a deacon. 2. If the implied 
permission be correct, then every man but a church officer has the 
liberty to "be given to wine," to be a "striker," "greedy of filthy 
lucre," <fec. 3. The qualification is descriptive, and not destinc- 
tive ; and therefore, 4. Requires that even before his conversion, 
he must not have been a polygamistr He must have a good report 
of them that are without, and thus, 5. Stamps divine disapprobation 
on polygamy. Sen. Ed- 



30 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 



FREE MASONRY. 



The Masons have had a carnival — a jubilee of carousal. The 
members of the fraternity have been on a pilgrimage. They have ri- 
valled the Hadji of Mecca and contended for thepalm with the faithful 
pilgrims of the Holy See. Lately the community in and around 
Philadelphia has been deeply stirred by the presence of vast numbers 
of the mysterious order. The excitement was deep and wide-spread. 
The wave set in motion extended throughout the State and far be- 
yond its limits. The vibrations have scarcely yet subsided. The 
occasion for all this mighty stir was the completion of a grand ma- 
sonic temple — the grandest, it is said, in the world — and its conse- 
cration to the god of masonry, whoever that may be. A whole week 
was given to the dedication, which were various enough to keep alive 
the interest of those who can feel an interest in such things. We 
cannot attempt to give in detail the ceremonies which signalized the 
occasion. A book would need to be written in such a case, not large 
enough, indeed, to fill the world, but quite too large to be compress- 
ed into our pages. Scripture was read, prayers were offered, address- 
es were given, corn was scattered upon the floor, wine was poured 
out, anointing with oil was performed on sundry objects, the wor- 
shippers marched in due procession through the streets and around 
the temple, but no falling off walls indicated that it was the Lord's 
host that was on the tramp. Many other things were done as part 
of the consecrating ceremonies, which would neither repay the labor 
of writing nor the trouble of reading them. Masons esteemed it a 
great occasion, and showed that they felt the profoundest interest in 
what they were doing, but thoughtful people looked on with wonder 
that men could be found, and men of intelligence which their appear- 
ance indicated that most of them were, who, in the light of day, could 
take part in such childish and senseless mummery. The rediculous 
never had a better illustration, and everybody would have laughed 
outright but for the serious moral and religious aspects of the case. 
Christians were shocked by the perversion os Scripture and by the 
prayers offered by ministers — Presbyterian ministers, too, as well as 
others — to the god of the Deist and of those who deny the name that 
is adove every name. 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 31 

It is a fact, patent as it is painful, that the secret orders have had 
a powerful revival in our ceuntry within the last fifteen years. Their 
name is legion and their form protean, of every shape and kind, from 
the Masonic Brotherhood to the Nobler Order Hottentots. The en- 
gine of secrecy is .brought to bear in every department of business ; 
every trade, every pursuit, every special object, political or moral, 
and oath-bound guild, and runs out its guidon a^ the rallying point 
os sympathizers and friends. Even the farmers of our country, who 
have heretofore, for the most part, stood aloof from the secret orders 
and presnted a break-water to their progross, are using their power 
to correct alledged wrongs under which they have been suffering, and 
using it, too, with powerful effect in securing the control of politics 
and legislation. The Patrons of Husbandry — the latest device of 
secrecy — are alreay a powerful organization, ramifying and reaching 
in its influence through nearly all the States. The wide-spread prev- 
alence of these numerous and various orders ; the dangerous power 
with which they are in many cases, control them ; their exclusive- 
ness, their selfeshness, their intense partisanship, their bitter and 
malignant hostility to those who oppose them on either political, 
moral or religious grounds, may well create the greatest apprehen- 
sions in patriotic and Christian minds. Histoay shows, what indeed 
must be apparent enough to a candid mind, that secret, oath-bound 
societies are a dangerous element in society, and are used by its 
worst members for the worst ends. They have, to put it in the 
mildest form, a capacity for mischief which is not safe for any com. 
munity to tolerate in its midst. Words spoken and deeds done in 
the dark are fruitful only of evil. 

Masonry is the type and in a sense the parent stock of all the or- 
ders of secrecy- They all spring from it. And while we have no 
malice against it or its patrons either, we think it right, when it is 
impudently obtruding itself upon public notice, and by its gaudy 
pretentions attempting to seduce and win over the thoughtless and 
uninformed, to recall a passage in its history. Less than fifty years 
ago there was on uprising of the people against masonry so general 
and earnest that the organization went down before the storm of op- 
position. The occasion of this was the abduction and murder of 
William Morgan, a citizen of Western New York. Morgan, who 
had passed through a number of the masonic degrees, renounced the 
system and wrote a book exposing its oaths and mysteries. The 



32 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

whole fraternity was roused to vengence. Under the laws and rules 
of masonry he was worthy of death. He was abducted and forcibly 
carried by Masons to Fort Niagra, and after a short confinement 
was drowned in the ISTiagra river. The most strenuous efforts were 
made to obtain possession of the manuscript of Morgan's book, and, 
if possible, prevent its publication. His enemies proceeded so far as 
to attempt the crime of arson in destroping the printing establish- 
ment in which the manuscript was supposed to be, and from the press 
of which it was expected that it would be issued. These are facts 
not generally known to the people now, though still fresh in the mem- 
ory of those cognizant of them at that time. The younger class of 
Masons who are really ignorant of the occurrences related, find it 
convenient to deny them, while the oldest and wiser class find it the 
safest course to say nothing about them. But they can neither be 
denied nor ignored. No facts in history are better authenticated. 
They were universally believed at the time. The whole country was 
kirfdlecl into a flame of excitement. The question passed into the 
arena of politics, the battle was fiercely fought, and as the result, 
some fifteen hundred lodges were forced to disband. 

These are not pleasant reminiscences for masonry, and would not have 
been revived but for its dangerous aggressions upon the community, 
promoted largely by its arrogant assumption, of a religious and chari- 
table character. Its history contradicts the assumption, and proves 
it to be scandalously irreligious and fiercely uncharitable. It stands 
convicted before the country and the world of the murder of William 
Morgan, and of thereby making his wife a widow and his chileren 
fatherless. It has never repented of the deed and never can while 
the system continues to be what it is, for masonic oaths and laws re- 
quire and justify the crime. 

We utter a voice of warning to our young men, who are most in 
danger because most sought after and beset, not to follow themselves 
to be bewitched by the facinations of secrecy, nor to be inveigled by the 
cunning craftiness of the lodge. "Have no fellowship with the un- 
fruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." 



WICKEDNDSS IN HIGH PLACES. 33 



PSALM 52. 

1 WHY dost though boast, mighty man, 

of mischief and of ill? 
The goodness of Almighty God 
endureth ever still. 

2 Thy tongue mischievous calumnies 

deviseth subtilely, 
Like to a razor sharp to cut, 
working deceitfully. 

3 111 more than good, and more than truth 

thou lovest to speak wrong: 

4 Thou lovest all-devpuring words, 

though deceitful tongue. 

5 So God shall thee destroy for aye, 

remove thee, pluck thee out 
Quite from thy house, out of the land 
of life he shall thee root. 

6 The righteous shall it see, and fear, 

and laugh at him they shall: 

7 Lo, this man is that did not 

make God his strength at all: 
But he in his abundant wealth 

his confidence did place ; 
And he took strength unto himself 

from his own wickedness. 

8 But I am in the house of God 

like to an olive green : 
My confidence for ever hath 
upon God's mercy been. 

9 And I forever will the praise, 

because thou hast done this : 
I on thy name will wait : for good 
before thy saints it is. 



34 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 



PSALM 53. 

1 That there is not a God, the fool 

doth in his heart conclude ; 
They are corrupt, their works are vile, 
not one of them doth good. 

2 The Lord upon the sons of men 

from heav'n did cast his eyes, 
To see if any one there was 
that sought God, and was wise. 

3 They altogerher filthy are, 

they all are backward gone ; 
And there is none that doeth good, 
no, not so much as one. 

4 These workers of iniquity, 

do they not know at all, 
That they my people eat as bread, 
and on God do not call ? 

5 Ev'n there they were afraid, and stood 

with trembling, all dismay'd, 
Whereas there was no cause at all 
why they should be afraid : 

6 For God his bones that thee beseig'd 

hath scatter' d all abroad ; 
Thou hast confounded them, for they 
despised are of God. 

7 Get Isr'eFs help from Zion come : 

when back the Lord shall bring 
His captives, Jacob shall rejoice, 
and Israel shall sing. 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 35 

If people would not tell so many falsehoods the truth would not leak 
out. About the first false report I heard after I returned from the 
Asylum, was the next week after I was sent there, the men were at 
work on the road when Mr. Philips says to James Wright, I hear 
that your brothers wife is in the Insane Asylum. Is it so? Mr. 
Wright answers yes. Mr. P. asks, why is she there? Mr. Wright 
replied, she got drunk and killed her baby. 

I will now tell you about the drinking. I have seen while at 
James Wright's father at prayer meeting , after the meeting was over 
as I was sitting where I could see) Alexander Wright take McCloud 
to a barrel marked Ohio whisky, turn the fasset and give him a glass 
of it to drink. When I got home I told John what I saw and asked 
him if they kept Ohio whisky in that barrel. He said yes, and when 
they drink it out they take it to Milwaukee and get it filled again. 
Some time after this*, Mr. James Wright went to the woods and while 
gone, an old woman went to his house and stole his money and 
whisky jug, so you see who it is that uses strong drink. 

And again : The year beforer I was sent to the Asylum, Miner- 
va Johnson came to our house and begged of John Wright and me to 
tell the Wrights to not let her sister's husband (Silas Parmer)have any 
liquor at the saw-mill ; because he come home and threatened her 
pfe. 

I think the Wright family ought to be the last one3 to speak of in- 
sanity ; for Rev. Mr. Johnson told me that two of John Wright's 
uncles in the old country were insane. And his father was insane 
for years. 

After James Wright slandering me — telling that I got drunk and 
killed my babe, — I will tell the truth about it. I defy any one to 
prove that I ever had a drop of liquor in my house. I never had as 
much as a camphor bottle. I often said to John Wright : I wish 



36 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACEL. 

you would get me an ounce of camphor, so I could have it in case of 
sickness ; but he never got it for me. It is well known to the 
Wrights that I did not use liquor in any form. About seven years 
before we were married he took me to Mount Morris, N. Y., to a 
Fourth of July celebration ; and we joined the temperance society ; 
he bought our badges and pined them on our shoulders, and had a free 
dinner. He must have forgotten the psalm that says : "You must 
not slander your neighbor privately or against his friend or take up 
an ill report.' 1 About this time they thought I would never get out 
of the Asylum to hear those felse reports. 

About three weeks after John Wright returned from Indiana, 
where he had been getting his divorce, I attended prayer meeting on 
Sabbath day at the house of widow Turner. After meeting I walked 
out and started for home, James Wright being out of doors, walked 
up to me and shook his fist in my face, saying to me, you have noth 
ing to do with those children. They were already on their way 
home. They went the same road that I did. I suppose he was 
afraid that I would speak to my children. John Wright had forbid- 
den the children to speak to me. He also told the children to not call 
me mother. James Wright after shaking his fist in my face, took 
me by the arms, knocked me down and jumped upon me, beat and 
bruised me in a shocking manner ; the effects of which I have never 
fully recovered- He did this in the presence of several reliable wit- 
nesses, his wife exclaimed at the time let her "be!" leave her alone! 
you will kill her! I started for home, but not being able to reach it, 
I stopped at Mr. Bairds, a neighbor of mine, where I was treated 
with kindness ; for Mrs. Baird was a kind lady and devout christian. 
She took care of me during the night, and the next day I went to 
Waukesha to see a doctor. I went to Mrs. Lain's the first week 
where I was cared for and kindly treated. I went to see Mrs. Dono- 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 37 

van. While I was there Martha Turner came in. I was in another 
room and she did not know that I was there. Mrs. Donovan spoke 
to her about how fearfully James Wright had bruised Mrs. John 
Wright. Martha said have you seen her bruises? She replied, I 
have. Martha said if she has any bruises on her she must have put 
them on herself. That happened in our yard. What happened in 
your yard? Mrs. Donovan asked. Then she left the shop as quick 
as possible. I thought she would say she was ashamed of his con- 
duct ; abusing a poor woman on the Lord's day, and disgracing the 
church 

Acts xxv, 10. Then Paul said I stand at Ceasar's judgement 
seat. 



Waukesha, March the 29 th, 1876. 

Mrs. Wright came to my house one day, very sick ; she looked 
very badly I asked her what ailed her, she said Mr. James Wright 
had pounded her, almost killed her. I helped her in bed, she was 
black and blue from head to foot, her back was so lame she could 
scarcely move in bed. I bathed her in linament for several days 

I was angry enough at the Wrights to pound them all myself, for 
so abusing her. I hope the time is not far distant when she will be 
rewarded for her long suffering. So far, she has had no redress work- 
ing, but insults from all that she has applied to for help. John 
Wrights money bought them up. 

I have known her for several years, she has my wannest sympa- 
thy. She is a kind friend, and a good woman. 

It was James Wright, her brother-in-law, that hurt her, and be- 
cause her husband was put under bonds the week before for threat- 
ening her life. 

Mrs. R. J. Lain, Waukesha. 



38 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

Waukesha. 

I Mrs. M. A. Donovan, will at any time, when 
called upon, testify upon oath, that I saw upon the person of Mrs. 
Christiana Wright several very large and very bad looking bruises 
upon different parts of her person. They were put upon her on Sab- 
bath, and I saw them on Monday following,and also on Saturday 
of the same week. I will testify more explicitly if called upon. 
And I will state that Mrs. Angrave will testify to the same for she 
saw them too. 

M. A. Donovan. 



Waukesha, 

I was an assistant in the County House at the 

time Mrs. John Wright was brought there. She was under my care, 
she was very sick, she siad it was caused by James Wright jaming 
her head on the ground at the house of William Turner, on the Sab- 
bath day at prayer meeting without the least cause or provication. 

Mrs. Cooper, 



PSALM 124. 

Had not the Lord been on our side. 
1 may Israel now say ; 

2 Had not the Lord been on our side, 

when men rose us to slay ; 

3 They had us swallow'd quick, when as 

their wrath 'gainst us did flame : 

4 Watters had cover' d us, our soul 

had sunk beneath the stream. 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 39 

Then had the waters, swelling high, 
over our soul made way. 

Bless'd be the Lord, who to their teeth 
us gave not for a prey. 



WHY DOES THE DRINKING OF ALCOHOL CAUSE 

DEATH ? 

From the "Temperance Manual," a very readable little work by 
Rev. Justine Fdwards, D. D., we extract the following in regard to 
the injurious effects of alcoholic drinks upon the system : 

Were the human body transparent and could we see the effect of 
alcohol as we do the color of the men's faces, every man might ans- 
wer this question for himself. He would have ocular demonstration 
that alcohol is a poison, and that the drinking of it is a violation of 
natural and moral laws. It has no nourishment in it. The diges- 
tive organs cannot decompose it into blood, bones, or anything by 
which the human body is nourished, strengthened or supported. 
When swallowed it goes into the stomache, tha common receptacle of 
of food. This is a delicate and principal organ, and its state effects 
the whole body. Its inner coat, in a heal thy condition, is slightly 
tinged with a reddish color. The blood vessels which spread over if 
are exceedingly numerous, and yet so small that the naked eye can- 
not discern them. They give to it a delicate reddish hue, like the 
delicate tinge on the cheek of a healthy child. Alcohol when it 
touches that delicate organ irritates the surface, and produces 
through the medium of the nerves a tingling sensation. The sensa- 
tion is a note of alarm — a warning to the system, that an enemy has 
invaded it. ' The a heart, that great sentinel, startes anew and throws 
forces on to the invaded spot in order to protect it. The blood in 
greater quanity and with greater force rushes into those little vessels, 
till, by and by, if the process be continued they become enlarged, so 
that you can see them sperading out all over the inner surface of the 
stomache in thousands of ramifications, like the branches of a tree. 
The surface becomes inflamed and begins to grow black. The blood 
settles ; the coats becomes thickened ; ulcers begin to form and 
spread out, till, if the process is continued and idcreased, as in the 
case of the drunkard, the whole inner coat of that fundamental organ 



40 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

puts on the appearance of mortification, and becomes in color like the 
back of a chimney. Not unfrequently cancers are formed and the 
whole surface becomes one common sore. The consequence is that 
the stomache necessarily becomes unfitted to digest food, and the 
whole system suffers. 

Erom the stomache the alcohol unchanged is taken up by the ab- 
sorbent vessels and carried into the blood, that great receptacle and 
common carrier of nourishment. With that it is circulated through 
the system, till as a nuisance it is seized upon by the emunctories, 
the scavengers, and is thrown off. But it was alcohol, a subtle and 
irritating poison when taken into the stomache, and it is the same 
when sucked up by the absorbent vessels and carried into the blood. 
It is alcohol in the heart, in the lungs, in the arteries, in the brain, 
in the veines, the nerves and tissues, and fibres of the whole body, 
and it is alcohol when, having passed through all the circulation, it is 
expelled. Give it to the dog ; take the blood from his foot and dis- 
til it and you have alcohol, the same which the dog drank — no, not 
the same which he drank, for a dog knows too much to drink it ; it 
is the same which in opposition to the instinct which God gave him 
and drunkeuness has not obliterated, you force upon him. 

Take the blood from the foot of a drunkard, from his head or his 
liver, and distil it, you have alcohol. It has actually been taken 
from the brains strong enough, on the application of fire, to burn. 
Dr. Kirk of Scotland, dissected a man who died in a fit of intoxica- 
tion. From the lateral ventricles of the brain he took a fluid directly 
sensible to the smell of whisky. When he applied a candle to it, it 
instantly took fire and burned blue. "The lambent blue flame," he 
says, "characistic of the poison, playing on the spoon for some 
seconds." 

All the organs of the human body have as much work to do as is 
consistent with permanent healthful action when they have to remove 
only what is occasioned by nourishing food and drink. God desighn- 
ed in that case that they should all be diligent in business. In the 
structure of the body he has given them as much to do as they can 
perform, and yet to the longest preserve human life. 

If you withhold what is nourshing, and then diminish their strength 
or load them with what is not nourishing and thus increase their la- 
bor, you necessarily wear them out too soon and produce premature 
decay and death. 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 41 

Digestion is one of the most important of all the animal functions. 
Thh object is to convert food into nourishment, for the purpose of 
renovating and sustaining the system, by repairing the wastes which 
are continually taking place. This function alcohol peculiarly dis- 
turbs. 

Among the millions and millions of little workers, day and night, 
all diligent in business when not invaded by transgression, there is 
the most pure and perfect harmony, the most delicate sensibility and 
the most wonderful sympathy. "If one member suffer, all the mem- 
bers suffer with it ; and if one member rejoice, all the members with 
it rejoice." There is no "schism in the body." The good of each 
is the good of all, and each in view of all echoes the declaration of its 
Maker, very good. 

From the manner in which those two different sets of organs, name- 
ly, those for the deposit of nourishment and those for the expulsion 
poisons, treat any substance which is taken into the body, and from 
the manner in which that substance treats then, we learn its nature 
and the will of God in regard to the use of it. If the organs for the 
deposit of nourishment will take hold of it, and work it up into flesh, 
or bones, or which causes it to grow strong and healthy, then the 
substance is good and it is proper to use it. But if those organs re- 
ject it, and thus show that they have no need of it, and the organs of 
the expulsion of poison seize upon it and drive it from the territory, 
then it is an enemy, and ought not to be admitted to the camp. 

How then do these two sets of organs treat alcohol ? First how do 
those treat it, whose business it is to deposit nourishment ? Do they 
take it and work it up into flesh and bones, sinews, nerves, or any- 
thing by which the body is nourished or supported ? Never. They 
all instinctively reject it ; tney cannot use it. Alcohol it was, alco- 
hol it is, and alcohol it will be in spite of all they can do with it. 

We have seen how it treats the stomach, swelling its thousand lit- 
tle blood vessels to ten times their proper size, inflaming, thickening 
and ulcerating its coats and changing its delicate, reddish hue into 
blackness. When carried into the blood, it goes to one group of 
vessels and they reject it. If they can prevent it they will not even 
suffer it to stop. "It is hurried on from organ to organ, marking its 
course with irregularity of action and ditsurbance of function," till, 
having passed around the body, it is rejected by all. Nor is this the 
whole ; while they fight against it, it impedes their progress and 



42 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

goads them on to madness. Having to labor amidst the fire and 
fumes of an irritating, poisonous foe, they become irratated and pois- 
oned ; their sensibilities are blunted, their energies crippled, and their 
work. These parts of the body which are dependent upon them for 
support, are not supplied and they complain. The organs retort, the 
harmony of the system is interrupted, sympathy between the parts 
is weakened and then destroyed. Confusion ensues and every evil 
work. In their blind intoxicated frenzy they bite and devour one 
another, and so are consumed one of another. 

The marks of that warfare, when it has continued long and pro. 
ceeded far, are seen in the crimson face and bloodshot eye, the swol- 
len nose, the palsied tougue, the trembling limbs, the tottering steps 
and falling body ; while the common enemy goes on from conquering 
to conquer, till, if he cannot be expelled, death and destruction reign 
over all. Were the body transparent, you would see the footprints 
of the enemy on the inside long before you discovered them on the 
outside. 

What reception does it meet with from the organs whose business 
it is to watch for enemies and clear off nuisances ? Do they let it 
alone ? or do they, like the other organs, suffer it to continue to pass 
in through the highway of the system ? If they should they would 
be traitors. But they are not traitors, nor are they cowards. Any 
invading foe however powerful, they will attack, even alcohol itself. 
No sooner does it come within their reach, than they seize it, work at 
it, and never leave it unless they are conquered, till they expel it. 
It is a war of desperation, never to cease until one party or the oth- 
er is conquered. The first invaders they expel, and the next, and the 
next. But if new recruits with increasing numbers aud power con- 
tinue to invade, and their own recruits begin to fail, their resources 
to diminish and their power to decline ; especially, if you who are 
the guardian for whom they have labored with untiring assiduity day 
and night for years, if you turn traitor, side with the enemy, and 
pour in his recruits, those organs, in rhe sickly climate, with that 
deadly foe, will begin to faint, and by and bye sink down in despair, 
while they and yon, by your suicidal hands, will die together. 

Keep in mind that this is all extra labor, of a most exhausting 
kind, with a deadly foe and in a poisonous atmosphere which that foe 
creates. It is cruelty tooneself, more abominable than that which 
Fgyptian taskmasters exercised towards their slaves. 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 43 

They required them to make their brick without straw, but they 
did not lessen their food ; they did not poison their atmosphere ; 
they did not diminish their strength ; they did not multiply their 
enemies. All these the rum drinker does to his own organs, which 
he is bound by every principle of duty and interest to protect and 
nourish as part of himself. But in violation of all becomes his own 
destroyer. 

Human life in this way is often cut off ten, twenty, and sometimes 
fifty years sooner than sin or Satan without alcohol would have ac- 
complished it. The poor soul by violence is driven from his earthly 
tenement, and not permitted to stay out its proper time by half a cen- 
tury. No wonder unerring justice and infalible truth should say, 
"Woe unto him that give his neighbor drink, that putteth the bottle 
to his lips, and maketh him drunken." — Monroe Co. League. 



PSALM 59. 

1 My God, deliver me from those 

that are mine enemies ; 
And do thou me defend from those 
that up against me rise. 

2 Do thou deliver me from them 

that work eniquity ; 
And give me safety from the men 
of bloody cruelty. 

3 For, lo, they for my soul lay wait : 

the mighty do combine 
Against me, Lord ; not for my fault, 
nor any sin of mine. 

4 They run, and, without fault in me, 

themselves do ready make : 
Awake to meet me with thy help ; 
and do thou notice take. 



44 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

■ I suppose Mr, R. B. Cannon has heard the false report told about 
me, saying that I killed my babe. I will tell you the right of it. 
My babe was sick two or three days. It had a little cold, and I had 
set up with it two nights and took care of it day times. I sent for 
Mrs. Mann to come and set up the third night. In a few miuutes 
Mr. and Mrs. Mann and Mrs. Bams came in. Mr. Mann felt ot the 
b>abe's pulse, and says your babe is not sick. I told him I did not 
think it was very sick, but was afraid it might have the croup, be- 
cause it was so fleshy. I asked Mr. Mann if he would not make a 
prayer, and he did. I had heard that Mrs. Murdock, who had mov- 
ed in the neighborhood lately was a good nurse for little children. I 
asked John if he would go after her, and have her come down and see 
the baby. He was gone about half an hour, and came in with a pa- 
per in his hand with about two table-spoons full of medicine in it, 
and laid it down on the desk. I asked hsm if Mrs. Murdock was 
going to come. He said no, but here is some medicine she sent ; 
and she said there was just enough for two doses. He took half of 
the medicine with some sugar and stirred it up and put it in the babes 
mouth while I washoleing it in my arms in the presence of Mr. and 
Mrs. Mann, and Mrs Barnes. 

I not being well at time, and very much in want of rest and sleep, 
I fell asleep while sitting in my chair with my babe in my arms ; 
and the next thing I knew Mrs. Mann spoke to me and told me to lay 
the babe down. I told her I could just as well hold it ; then she 
said lay it down, it is dead ; and that started me and sure enough it 
was dead, and the black stuff he had given it was ninning out of its 
mouth. 

Mrs. Murdock told me the medicine was Lobelia-seed, Camphor- 
gum and Blood root— one third of each. She told him to give what 
he could hold on the point of a pen-knife for a dose. He had made a 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 45 

mistake and gave a table-spoon full ; and I heard that John Wright 
said I gave it Calomel. I did not have any Calomel in the house ; 
but the fore part of the winter I took some Calomel but did not nurse 
babe at the time. I fed the babe on cow's milk. Now I hope yon 
will have Mr. and Mrs. Mann, and Mrs. Barns sworn, and see if we 
can get the story right. I think Mr. Mann will tell the truth if put 
under oath. Because at the time they tried to put John Wright un- 
der bonds he stood up as I thought, under oath and said I was insane. 
I inquired afterward what made him talk so fast. But he said he 
was not under oath. So you see it makes a great difference with some 
people whether they are under oath or not. 

Christiana Wright. 



PSALM 63. 

Lord, thee, my God, I'll early seek : 
my sonl doth thirst for thee ; 

My flesh longs in a dry parch'd land, 
wherein no waters be : 

That I thy power may behold, 
and brightness of thy face, 

As I have seen thee heretofore 
within thy holy place. 

Since better is thy love than life, 
my lips thee praise shall give. 

I in thy name will lift my hands, 
and bless thee while I live. 

Ev'n as with marrow and with fat 
my soul shall filled be ; 



46 WICKEDNESS IN HIG-H PLACES. 

Then shall my mouth with joyful lips 
sing praises unto thee : 

6 When I do thee upon my bed 

remember with delight, 

And when on thee I meditate 

in watches of the night. 

7 In shadow of thy wings I'll joy ; 

for thou mine help hast been. 

8 My soul thee follows hard ; and me 

thy right hane doth sustain. 

9 Who seek my soul to spill shall sink 

down to earrh's lowest room. 

10 They by the sword shall be cut off, 

and foxes' prey become. 

11 Yet shall the king in God rej.oice, 

and each one glory shall 
That swear by him ; but stopp'e shall be 
the mouth of liars all. 



Mrs. Mary Ann Downing, — Says: she has been acquainted 
with John Wright and wife for the past seven years. For the last 
year he has been very abusive toward his wife. On or about the first 
of November, 1865 ; I saw the same transaction , witnessed by my 
husband with this addition : After he had thrown her upon the 
ground, he caught hold of her and dragged her along on the ground 
some fifteen or twenty feet. He then left her lying on the ground, 
and went to the house. She laid there I should think, about one half 
hour before she got up. I think he has treated her in a cruel and in- 
human manner a great many times. I also saw the same transaction 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 47 

spoken of by my husband on or about the first of only 1866. I 
thouget the treatment to be very cruel and inhuman, and I am satis- 
fied that she was materially injured in the act of his dragging her on 
the ground. 



Miss Grace Burton, 

Says : Mrs. John Wright showed me the wounds which she re- 
ceived from her husband John Wright. Her limb was all black and 
blue from her knee to her ankle. Witness says, she has been well 
acquainted with John Wright and wife for seven years, and from her 
own knowledge she knows that John Wright has treated his wife in a 
cruel and inhuman manner without any provocation whatever. 



Walter S Downy, 

Says : I have been acquainted with John Wright and his wife, ten 
or eleven months past. On or about the first of November A. D. 18- 
65, I was standing in the field a little distance from where John 
Wright was. I saw him walk very hastily up to where Mrs. John 
Wright w^s standing, and apparently in great rage, he then threw her 
down on the ground, and finally went away and left her lying on the 
ground. 

On or about two months ago, which would be about the first of July 
1866, I heard Mrs. Wright come out of the house, and I heard her 
scream and cry. Then John Wright came out of the house and or- 
dered her to go into the house. She said she was afraid of him and 
did not dare to go with him. Then Wright went toward her in great 
fury. Mrs. Wright sat down upon the ground, and he caught hold of 
her, apparently in great rage and dragged her into the house. I am 



48 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

satisfied from what I have seen and know of John Wright's treat- 
ment toward his wife, that it has been cruel and inhuman, and with- 
out any just provication. 

W. S. Hawkins, 
Waukesha Jan. 25., 1869. Justice of the Peace, 



Testimony of Mrs. John Weight, 

Waukesha, April 24, 1868. 

I Christiana Wright, wife of John Wright, of the town of Waukesha 
and State of Wisconsin, do hereby notify the public that John Wright 
is not entitled to a bill of divorce on any grounds ; and that I can 
show by the best evidence that he is one of the greatest rascals, I 
think the State of Wisconsin ever produced. 

When his rascalities became known to the public, he was compell- 
ed to run away to escape imprisonment. He left these parts a little 
more than a year ago, and now I understand to get a bill of divorce 
from me ; and as I wish the custody of my children, I shall contest 
it. Some of the earliest of his criminal acts were, committing rape 
upon a young lady going home from church, on the Sabbath day. 
And collecting material and commencing to make "bogus" half dol- 
lars. I told him if he made such money, I would tell of it ; and he 
has been angry at me ever since. Also forgetting what the Bible 
says ; "To provide things honest in the sight of all men." He also 
kept one of our neighbor's daughters for a mistress three years. 
When he found out that I knew these things and fearing they would 
come to the public, he through bribery and stratagem, put me in the 
Insane Asylum, at Madison, and after staying and suffering untold 
miseries for five months, my brother came home from Tenessee and 
was the means of getting me out. After remaining at home a few 



WICKEDNDSS IN HIGH PLACES. 49 

months he made a second attempt to put me in the Insane Asylum, 
but failed for want of evidence, that I was insane at that time. I 
have now in my posession several certificates of physicians in our 
town and vicinity that I was not insane at the time he made those at- 
tempts. He was anxious to get me off for fear I would get my busi- 
ness settled in the church court. And when he failed in his plans, he 
began abusing me; a full account of which it will be impossible to 
give, but will mention a few abuses. At one time while riding with 
him, and without any apparent provication he caught my hands and 
tried to choke me by running the end of his hickory whip down my 
throat, and a short time after he caught me by the hair of my head 
and jerked me all around the room, nearly dislocating my neck. 
Probably that was his way of fulfilling the Bible command that "so 
ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. For no man ever 
yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it." Again he 
knocked me down and dragged me on the ground until I was nearly 
dead; and when I crawled to the house, he said, "it seems that you 
are not dead yet? This scene was witnessed by my oldest son and 
my niece. 



PSALM 140. 

Lord, from the ill and froward man 

give me deliverance, 
And do thou safe preserve me from 

the man of violence : 

Who in their heart mischievous things 

are meditating ever ; 
And they for war assembled are 

continually together. 



50 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

» 

3 Much like unto a serpent's tongue 

their tongues they sharp do nake ; 
And underneath their lips there lies 
the poison of a snake. 

4 Lord, keep me from the wicked's hands, 

from vi'lent men me save ; 
Who utterly to overthrow 
my goings purpos'd have. 



At another time he tied my hands with a thick rope, and then 
tied them together and jerked and dragged me for nearly half an hour 
and then put the rope on one of my ankles and jerked me around 
that way and struck me several blows on the head and bowels ; and 
in fact injured me so I was obliged to keep my bed for some weeks 
and never shall be able to do a full days work again. I lay 
several weeks at one of my neighbors, under the physician^ care. 



This is a statement of what I know concerning the abuse of Mrs. 
Wright : She stayed at my father's house some six or seven weeks, 
and when she first came she was apparently as well as any one ; and 
one day she went home to get some wearing apparel, and in a short 
time came back terribly bruised ; and was obliged to keep- her bed 
some two weeks, and mother examined her and found her badly in- 
jured in some respects, which I feel too delicate to mention. And 
again, on her return there were rings around her wrists that looked 
as though she had been tied with a rope. (And she said he did tie a 
rope around her wrists and drag her.) My father and mother saw 
the same marks. I could see nothing but what she was as sane then 

as she is to this day. 

Mrs. J. L. Gasper. 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 51 

After this I went by advice to the poor-house, for he would not al- 
low me to return home, and said if I. did he would kill me and dig a 
hole in the fence corner and bury me. 

After several weeks I went by advice of the superintendant, who 
was warden of the poor-house, back to my home, but he treated me 
so cruelly, I was compelled to swear my life against him. 

About this time he put his property out of his hands, and for the 
last year, I have been compelled to live on the bounty of my friends. 

I will add some things which will prove that John Wright is not 
the one to have a bill of divorce ; and I wish to contest the matter, 
in order to obtain the care and custody of my children. And anoth- 
er criminal act is, he bought a bottle of medicine and wanted me to 
take it, to destroy the life of my eldest daughter before her birth, and 
was very angry because I would not take it ; and if he had had his 
way about it, we would not have had any children ; — and now 
who do you think the children belong to ? He forgot that God said : 
"Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth." 

At the time he was gone I could not find out where he was ; — his 
folks not letting me know anything about it. I got a hint of his 
where-abouts when it was too late ; he had returned with a bill of di- 
vorce. After finding it out I sent to Indiana for a copy which I got. 
He testified in his bill that I left him and his infant children, which I 
can testify is a false oath : as I can prove I had no infant children. 
He took my children away from me more than three years ago, with- 
out any cause or reason. He also testified I had nothing in the way 
of property, which is another false oath, as I can prove; I can also 
testify that my son, Lemuel Wright's oath is false, saying he never 
saw his father abuse me. His father told him to say it in the court at 
Oconomowoc the day he was put under bonds. I heard him tell him 
so. — "Selling his God-molock to be burned in the fire." 



52 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

He asked me at one time to forgive him ; and said if I would for- 
give him and God would forgive him, he would never be guilty of the 
sin of adultry again, for he had been guilty of it for a number of 
years. And I did forgive him and lived with him for a year after ; 
then without my knowledge he went to Indiana and obtained a bill of 
divorce. 



PSALM 33. 

10 God doth the counsel bring to nought 

which heathen folk do take ; 
And what the people do devise 
of none effect doth make. 

11 but the counsel of the Lord 

doth stand forever sure ; 

And of his heart the purposes 

from age to age endure. 



A Copy of Certificates. 

Waukesha Sep. 3, 1866. 
To whom this may concern : — We the undersigned practicing 
physicians and surgeons of the town and county, do hereby certify 
that we have carefully examined Mrs. Christiana Wright, and have 
become fully satisfied that at the present time she is of perfectly sane 
mind and enjoying good health. Not being acquainted with her 
formally, we are unable to make any further statement. 

R. D. Dunlap, M. D. 

J. Smith, M. I). 

A. Kendnck, M. D. 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 53 

Waukesha, May 8, 1866. 

This is to certify that we are acquainted with Mrs. John "Wright, 

and as far as we know, have seen nothing to indicate that she is not 

of sane mind. 

Robert Boyd, D. D. 

J. H. Barnard, D, D. 

M. Sellers 

A. Kendrick, M. D. 

Mrs. Isac Lain 

Jane Angrave 

Mrs. M. A. Donovan 

Sue. Taylor. 



To whom it may concern : — This is to certify that I have seen 

and conversed with Mrs Christiana Wright several times within the 

past week, and do believe her to be a sane woman at the present 

time. 

Mukwonago May 29, 1867. 

J. Youmans M. D. 



To Rev. R. Johnson, 

Dear Sir : I have not said that Mrs. Wright 
should be sent to the insane asylum for the exhibition of her conduct 
on the night of her husband's trial. 

Waukesha, Nov. 24, 1866. 

C. G. Heath J. P. 



54 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

PSALM 146. 

7 Who righteous judgment executes 

for those oppress 'd that be, 
Who to the hungry giveth food ; 
God sets the pris'ners free. 

8 The Lord doth give the blind their sight, 

the bowed down doth raise : 
The Lord doth dearly love all these 
that walk in upright ways. 



Why the above was written ; John Wright told Rev. R. John- 
son that Justice Heath said I acted like an insane woman on the night 
of the trial. I asked Justice Heath what I did. He said I did 
nothing, and others said the same. Then Justice Heath asked me 
why I was sent to the asylum. I told him I did not know where I 
was going at the time I went there. John lied to me and deceived 
me. I supposed I was going to another place in company with Mrs. 
James Wright, and expected to come home the next day. The 
morning we were getting ready to go John took me into another 
room, and shaking his fist in my face said to me : "if you say a word 
to Jim's wife about those furs, I will smash your brains out. It is 

enough to own it to God. 

Mrs. Christiana Wright. 



PSALM 34. 

14 Depart from ill, do good, seek peace, 
pursue it earnestly. 

16 God's eyes are on the just : his ears 
are open to the cry. 

16 The face of God is set against 
those that do wickedly ; 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 55 

That he may quite out from the earth 
cut off their memory. 



Agreement between Harvey Rose and Christiana Wright. 

For and in consideration of the sum of two hundred and fifty dol- 
lars to me in hand paid by Christiana Wright ; I do hereby agree to 
extend or give to Christiana Wright, and to her heirs and assigns, 
five years from the date of this agreement in which to pay a certain 
mortgage and note of twelve hundred dollars ; said mortgage execut- 
ed by John Wright and wife Christiana Wright, to William Vander- 
pool on the third day of January A. D., 1866, and by him assigned 
to Borman and Howitt,and by the said Borman and Howitt assigned 
James Knowels and Matthew Young, and by them duly assigned to 
me, — Harvey Rose. And now the condition of this contract is such 
that if the said Christiana Wright, her heirs or assigns shall truly 
pay the sum of twelve hundred dollars on or before five years from 
this date, with interest at the rate of ten per cent from this date, I do 
hereby agree to release to her or her heirs or assigns the lands de- 
scribed in this said mortgage, and to no one else; and it is hereby 
further agreed or understood that the said Christiana Wright, her 
heirs and assigns shall have the privelege of paying said note and 
mortgage at any time within five years from this date by paying the 
annual interest at the rate of ten per cent per annum until said note 

shall be paid. 

W. S. Hawkins Harvey Rose [seal] 

James Knowels Christians Wright [seal] 
Dated at Waukesha A. D. 1867. 



56 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

Waukesha County 
I hereby certify that the above and foregoing is a true copy of 
the original agreement between Harvey Rose and Christiana Wright 
now remaining in my hands. 

Given under my hands at Wsukesha, January 3, 1868. 

W. S. Hawkins. 
The above proceedings were transacted while John Wright was 
gone to obtain the bill of divorce ; and the neighbors told me he had 
gone to Ireland. 

After he returned with the bill, Rev. Dr. Cannon and he went to 
Mr Rose to get him to say he wanted the money in one year, instead 
of five as we had agreed upon. As soon as that was done John drove 
me away with a hammer. 

I Mrs. Shields, am willin to testify whenever called upon, that I 
saw John Wright drive Mrs. Wright out of bed, out of the house and 
out of the yard, with a large nail hammer. He shook it over her 
head and mine for some time, and it gave me such a fright that I was 
not able to be out of my bed for five weeks. It was done without 
any cause or provication. 

Mrs. Shields, Waukesha. 

This is the way Dr. Cannon provides for the widow and the fath- 
erless by helping to rob me of my homestead. I only wished for 
forty acres and leaving two-hundred for him. I think my business 
might have been settled long before now, if Rev. Dr. Cannon, 
William Wright and his cousin Mr. Mann, the only Elders of the 
church (as elder Milrov withdrew from the church some three years 
ago, becaus they would not do anything about this business) had been 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 57 

the men their profession calls for. I have tried to have it settled in 
the church where it ought to be, as we are all members of the same 
church, but they will do nothing about it, only are a hindrance. 

1 Cor. i. 18, 28. When ye come together in the church, I hear 
that there are divisions among you. When ye come together there- 
fore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. 

I gave my papers to Rev. Dr. Cannon, to be sent to a higher 
churce court, if he did not want to have anything to do with them. 
He took my papers to Rev. Mr. Trumble in Iowa, asking him to 
keep them with his papers as he was Clerk of the Presbytery. It is 
supposed by my friends that he thought if he could keep them long 
enough they would be outlawed ; but last fall when Mr. Milroy was 
out there he found out they had never been laid before the Presby- 
tery. He told Mr. Trumble that I wanted my papers. Mr. Trum- 
ble told him I should have a copy of them when I wanted; I had Mr. 
Milroy send for them and when they came the package had been 
opened, and there was nothing but the copy of the bill of divorce, 
with forty cents postage on it. Dr. Cannon told me he would get 
me a copy of the bill, but he never did it ; it is the other papers that 
are of more importance to me. 

Namely : A copy of the letter which John Wright tried to bribe 
Justice Heath, in the Messenger trial. Second : A copy of the tes- 
timony of the trial at Oconomowoc, whereon he was put under bonds. 
The cause of this trial Was, as he has always been in the habit of do- 
ing, feeding the lawyers with money ; he ran away before they did 
anything about it. He did then just as he has ever since, tells all 
Judges and Attorney's that his wife is insane : (so I have been told 
by respectable people of Waukesha,) and turns the minds of the 
Attorneys so that I have never been able to get anything done ; be- 



58 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

cause his deeds are evil he is afraid to bring it to the light. 

I will assure you whoever takes the case, will not be ashamed of it 
for I can prove my character, by the best of witnesses from a child. 
They may write to Rev. Samuel Bowdon, pastor Reform Presbyteri- 
and Covenanter church, town of York, Livingston Co., State of 
N. Y., for a copy of my certificate which he gave me to bring to the 
Vernon Church, of which I am a member. 1 wished William Wright 
to give me a copy of it, as he keeps such papers ; but he refused. 

This would be a copy of the certificate : 

A respectable member of the Church free from all grounds of cen- 
sure. 

Christiana McDonald. 

This certificate was given me about twenty-five or six years ago. 

But this Vernon Church reminds me of "Saul and Sandballet, the 
builders of Jerusalem, who built the walls so slightly that if a fox 
went upon it, it would tumble down. 

I think it very evident that John Wright will be brought low, for 
God declares if any one turns back from him, that he will make 
their house a dung hill. 

The Covenanter Church in Scotland that my forefathers came 
from, was in covenant with God. But the most part of Vernon 
Church have withdrawn on account of the ministers and elders not do. 
ing their duty in the church ; and the rest seem to be in Covenant 
with Judge Small, County officers and Attorney's with John Wright. 
And I am afraid at the last day Jesus will say "Depart I never 
knew you." 

When John Wright returned with the bill, he went to Oconomo- 
woc, and hired Judge Small and his partner (and I was told gave 
him three hundred dollars) to fight his Indiana bill. And where my 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 59 

my life was sworn against him, before he ran away. 

This was in the spring ,and Judge Small was not elected until fall. 
He employed Judge Small's, partner to plead the case when he sold 
the farm under the twelva hundred dollar mortgage the first term of 
court after. I knew nothing about the trial. Mr. Jaques wondered 
that I allowed the judges partner to plead the case for he said it was 
not according to law. If I had heard of the trial I did not remem- 
ber it, for I had been injured so by John and James Wright, and Mr. 
McNaughton, that I was perfectly simple but harmless. 

I beleive there never was a case among God's people, but there is a 
passage of scripture that, compares with mime. I think that it is in 
Mica. Where we read of the woman driven from house and home 
and robbed of her children. And the Psalm that corresponds with 
it, is the one that shows us that iniquity is a decree by law. 

John Wright dug a pit for me, and fell into it himself. 

Mrs. McNaughton told me that I could get nothing done by the 
county as long as her husband was sup't of the county-poor. So af- 
ter Mr. Jaquep, became superintendant I went to Delafield, to him 
and asked him why he had never done anything for me, and he said 
Mr. McNaughton and Mr.Christison, both elders of the U. P. Church 
came to him at the time he became sup't, and both told him to do 
nothing for me, as they were only insane notions of mine, about John 
and James Wright's abusing me. 

I think if Mr. McNaughton had his right place we would soon have 
a millenium, for it seems that he is the one that holds the chains ; 
having kept me chained while in his house and gave me hardly 
enough to eat. I think he wanted to kill me to please John Wright. 

I had rented a part of the farm, and let the other part to be work- 
ek on shares. John got some one to tell me that I had better get 
the note for the rent from the lawyer, and put it the hands of the 



60 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

■sheriff to collect, for the man would not pay it. So I did as 
they told me, for my mind was so weak I did not know that they 
were deceiving me, and that is the reason that I could not hire an 
Attorney. For Attorney Hulbert said that was the reason he had 
done nothing for me. 

Christiana Wright. 



PSALM 125. 

For ill men's rod upon the lot 
of just men shall not He ; 

Lest righteous men stretch forth 
their hands unto iniquity. 

Do thou to all those that be good 
thy goodness, Lord, impart ; 

And do thou good to those that are 
upright within their heart. 

But as for such as turn aside 
after their crooked way, 
Grod shall lead forth with wicked men 
on Isr'l peace shall stay. 



PSALM 83. 

3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consul- 
ted against thy hidden ones. 

. 4 They have said, come, and let us cut them off from being a na- 
tion ; that the man of Israel may be no more in remembrance. 

5 For they have consulted together with one consent : they are 
confederate against thee : 

6 The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites ; of Moab, and 
the Hagerenes ; 

7 Gebel, and Ammon, and Amalek ; the Philistines with the in- 
habitants of Tyre ; 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 61 

PSALM 82. 

2 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the 
wicked ? Selah. 

3 Defend the poor and fatherless : do justice to the afflicted and 
needy. 

4 Deliver the poor and needy : rid them out of the hand of the 
wicked. 

5 They know not, neither will they understand ; they walk on in 
darkness : all the foundations of the earth are out of course. 

6 I have said, Ye are gods ; and all of you are children of the 
most high. 

7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. 

8 Arise, God, judge the earth : for thou shalt inherit all na- 
tions. 



PSALM 35. 

4 Let them confounded be and sham'd 
that for my soul have sought : 
Who plot my hurt turn'd back be they, 
and to confusion brought. 

6 Let them be like unto the chaif 
that flies before the wind ; 
And let the angel of the Lord 
pursue them hard behind. 

6 "With darkness cover thou their way, 

and let it slipp'y prove ; 
And let the angel of the Lord 
pursue them from above. 

7 For without cause have they for me 

their net hid in a pit, 
They also have without a cause 
for my soul digged it. 



62 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

8 Let ruin seize him unawares ; 

his net he hid withal 
Himself let catch ; and in the same 

destruction let him fall. 
My soul in God shall joy ; and glad 

in his salvation be : 



PSALM 121 

What shall be giv'n thee ? or what shall 

be done to thee, false tongue ? 
Ev'n burning coals of juniper, 
sharp arrows of the strong. 

Woe's me that I in Mesech am 

a sojourner so long ; 
That I in tabernacles dwell 

to Kedar that belong. 

My soul with him that hateth peace 
hath long a dweller been. 

I am for peace ; but when I speak, 
for bottle they are keen. 



Lev. xix. Ye shall do no unrighteousenss in judgment ; thou shalt 
not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the 
mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor. Hab. 
i. 4. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgement doth never go 
forth : for the wicked doth compass about the righteous ; therefore 
wrong judgement proceedeth. 

Prov. xix. 5. A false witness shall not be unpunished ; and he 
that speaketh lies shall not escape. Prov. vi. 16. These six things 
doth the Lord hate ; yea, seven are an abomination unto him : Ver. 
19. A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that . seweth discord 
among bretheren. 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 63 

Acts vi. 13. And set up false witnesses, which said, This man 
ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and 
the law. 

Jer. ix. 3. And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies ; 
but they are not valient for the truth upon the earth ; for they pro- 
ceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the Lard. Ver- 
5. And they will deceive every one his neighbor,- and not speak the 
truth : they have taught their tongues to speak lies, and weary 
themselves to commit iniquity. Acts xxiv. 2. And when he was 
called forth, Tertullus began to abuse him, — Yer. 5. For we have 
found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all 
the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the 
Nazerenes. Ps. xii. 3. The Lord shall cut off all nattering lips, 
and the tongue that speaketh proud things ■; Yer. 4. Who have said, 
with our tongue will we prevail ; our lips and our own : who is the 
lord over us ? Ps. Iii. 1. Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, 
mighty man ? the goodness of God endureth continually. Yer. 3. 
Thou lovest evil more than good, and lying rather than righteousness. 
Selah. Yer. 4. Thou lovest all devouring words, thou deceitful 
tongue. 

Prov. xvii. 15. He that justiffeth the wicked, and he that con- 
demned the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. 1. 
Kings xxi. from Verse 9 to 14. And (Jezebel) wrote in the letters, 
saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people : 
Ver. 10. And set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to bear wit- 
ness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king : 
and then carry him out, and stone him, that he may die. Yer. 11. 
And the men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who were in- 
habitants in his city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them. Yer. 13.— 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 64 

And (they) stoned him with stones, that he died. 

Isa. v. 23. Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away 
the righteous of the righteous from him ! 

Ps. cxix. 23. The proud have forged a lie against me . but I 
will keep thy preceps with my whole heart. Luke xix. 8. And 
Zaccheus stood, and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of 
my goods I give to the poor ; and if I have taken any thing from any 
man by false accusotion, I restore him four-fold. Luke xvi. 5. So 
he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the 
first, How much owest thou unto my lord ? Yer. 6. And he said, 
An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, 
and sit down quickly, And how much owest thou ? — 



PSALM 35 

19 Let not my wrongful enemies 

proudly rejoice o'er me ; 
Nor who me hate without a cause, 
let them wink with the eye. 

20 For peace they do not speak at all ; 

but crafty plots prepare 
Against all those within the land 
that meek and quiet are. 

21 With mouths set wide, they 'gainst me said, 

Ha, ha ! our eye doth see. 

22 Lord, thou hast seen, hold not thy peace ; 

Lord, be not far from me. 

23 Stir up thyself ; wake, that thou may'st 

judgment to me afford, 
Ev'n to my cause, thou that art 
my only God and Lord. 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 65 

Micah, chapter third and first verse: "And I said, Hear, I pray 
you, heads of Jocob, and the princes of the house of Israel ; Is it 
not for you to know judgment ? 

Who hate the good, and love the evil ; 

One Sabbath morning in March, 1873, Rev. Dr. Cannon asked 
the Bible class the question, is it right to pray for our enemies ? I 
told him yes sir, it is right to pray for your enemies. After I said 
this I inquired, is it right to pray for false bretheren ? and he ans- 
wered, are you willing to be the judge ? I said yes sir, I am willing 
to be the judge, for Jesus tells us we can judge the tree by the fruit. 

Now for example, take a member of this church which has sworn 
false a number of times, and he knows that I know he did, is it right 
to pray for such, for Jesus tells us to beware of false bretheren and 
seducers. The minister hastily went into the pulpit. 

I called next morning to get some valuable papers that he got of 
me to take to the Presbytery, which I have been told he was to keep 
from me until they were out-lawed as he has been doing all he could 
or John Wright. 

Dr. Cannon told me that I said that my neices testimony was false 
I told him that I did not. I took my testimony that Mr. and Mrs. 
McLaughlin's oaths were false. I told him that I would leave it to 
Lord Jesus Jehova, and to elder Milroy who sat in the seat beside 
me. 

I inquired that morning what business John Wright had to drive 
me away from my homestead after I had obtained a deed of it, and 
had it in my possession. He said cannot a man go away on business 
without a woman having her homestead set off ? I said I did not 
know of any business that he had down in Indiana. 

But I have found out now what it was. Rev. Mr. French, one of 
the Covenanter ministers which lives in that vicinity, made the story 



66 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

plain to me. 

He says he has a brother living there and his brothers wife's sister 
lives with them. John came down there and courted her and made 
her believe that he had a divorce from me . This woman wanted to 
see the divorce before she would marry him. 

Some one sent word from here that he was getting a divorce from 
his wife wrongfully. 

I did not know of this at the time, but have found it out since. 

When he showed her the copy of the divorce she was perfectly dis- 
gusted for she could not see anything in it that would divorce a man 
from his wife and give him any right to marry another ; and he was 
driven from the house and told never to enter it again, for nobody 
but loafers obtained Indiana divorces. 

The next thing he did was to go to Galena, and courted Mr. Cul- 
ver's daughter, and asked her father and mother's consent to marry 
her ; but they were smart enough to send a man out here to inquire 
what reason he had to be divorced from his wife. He found that the 
divorce was not worth the paper it was written on. 

Now you see that this is the way he has been doing for years until 
he is old, grey and bald headed. 

You see this Corinthian has made himself a great deal of trouble. 
Pauls advice is "if we are married be contented and if we are single 
be contented." 

It will soon be all the same to us whether we are married or un- 
married, for we soon will have to give an account for the deeds done 
in the flesh. 

If it was me that had been guilty of turning my husband away 
without any cause or reason I would never look for another. 

I will give you a few hints about the Church. 

Two years ago Rev. Mr. Hunter came here and assisted at the 



WICKBDNDSS IN HIGH PLACES. 67 

communion and a few days before he asked one of the members the 
reason why her husband stood back from communion , she replied, 
why do you not talk to some of the rest as well, for Mr. Milroy and 
a great many others stay back. He says, is it possible that elder 
Milroy stands back? Dr. Cannon and elder Wright did not let me 
know any thing about it. Rev. Mr. Hunter says, I am convinced 
that there is something very wrong going on here where elder Milroy 
stands back from the communion for I know all the Milroy' s in the 
east, and they are the very best kind of Covenanters. 

So you can see how business is done in this part of the vineyard. 

This Chur ch has earned itself a new name, it is called the cuddled 
up church. This is the reason why Rev. R. Johnson was not 
wanted here. He would not give John a certificate that he was a 
member of the church at this time, but he would give him one that he 
was a member four years before ; but he got one from elder Wright 
and elder Gaught, before elder Milroy knew of it. Elder Milroy is 
about leaving and they will not give him one ; he laughs about it, but 
says they could give John Wright one to go and get a divorce wrong- 
fully. Mr. Johnson said the reason he left was because he would 
not perjure himself for them, for he had a good standing in the 
church. 

Now we are coming to the times when the righteous can scarcely 
be saved, and where will the wicked and the ungodly appear. 

While conversing with Dr. Cannon I asked what right had John 
to get a divorce from me, are we not bound to do as we would be 
done by ? for he did not even notify me. He replied, there was an 
act passed that they did not have to notify in Indiana. I said it was 
not passed in the covenanter courch, which we were all members of. 
This looks like putting mans laws above God's laws. 



05 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

PSALM 82. 

2 How long will ye judge unjustly and accept the persons of the 
wicked ? Selah. 

3 Defend the poor and the fatherless : do justice to the afflicted 
and needy. 

4 Deliver the poor and needy : rid them out of the hand of the 
wicked. 

5 They know not, neither will they understand ; they walk on in 
darkness rail the foundations of the earth are out of course. 

6 I have said, Ye are gods ; and all of you are children of the 
most high. 

7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. 

8 Arise, God, judge the earth : for thou shalt inherit all na- 
tions. 



I will tell a nice circumstance that happened the first summer 
that John Wright came home with his great divorce. We went to 
the Covenanter Church. As John was there sitting in the second 
seat from the door, as I went in, one of the members whispered to 
me and said, why don't you sit in the seat with John ? I said, no, it 
will not do. She said, yes do. So as he sat in the farther end of 
the seat, I sat down in the other end, but before I could get myself 
seated he jumped up and ran from seat to seat until he got to the 
farther end of the church. James Wright was in the entry and hear- 
ing the noise came and looked in and seeing John going from seat to 
seat as fast as he could go, he came up to me and said with clinched 
fist it you do not stop making such a fuss as this in my house I will 
put you out of it. I said, it is your house ? I thought it was 
God's house, that accounts for having so much trouble in it. He 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 69 

gave me to understand that before the church was built that his fath- 
er gave ten dollars towards the lot the church was built on ; that was 
why it was his church. 

As Rev. Dr. McDonald was there, he asked them to sing the one- 
hundred and thirty-third psalm. 

1 Behold, how good a thins; it is, 

and how becoming well, 
Together such as brethern are 
in unity to dwell ! 

2 Like precious o'ntment on the head, 

that down the beard did flow, 
Ev'en Aaron's beard, and to the skirts 
did of his garmants go. 

3 As Herman's dew, the dew that doth 

on Sion' hills descend ; 
For there the blessing God commands 
life that shall never end. 

At the time John advertised me in the news-papers, saying that I 
left his bed and board I can prove that the bedding was mine : I 
think the board was as much mine as his, for I used to get up at four 
o'clock every morning and work until ten or eleven at night to get 
my house work done, and in the mean time I used to husk corn and 
pick up an eighteen pail chaldron kettle of potatoes and boil them for 
the pigs, every day except on the Sabbath day for a number of weeks. 

John had a clean shirt every day through the summer ; and when 
my son Lemuel came home from church I would say to him now take 
off your fine shirt, and it will do to wear again, (as he had but one 
and John had seven) but his father would not let him take it off at 
to plague me. and made him wear it until Friday when I wanted 
him to let me have it to wash but he would not let me have it then, 



70 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

so while they were in the brook bathing I laid down a clean shirt and 
took the dirty one. John saw me and chased me in the presence of 
Mr. Boyed, with a pitchfork in his hand to get it so I would not have 
it to wash, and he would have to go to church with a dirty one. If 
he wanted a fresh drink of water he would take the pail and dash the 
water on the floor and go out and get another to provoke me to quar- 
rel. You see when a man wants to quarrel what he will do. 

Now do you not think he acts like a mad man more than anything 
else ? This was all done to try me to see if I would not give him a 
divorce. He never was able to make it out, and he never will be. 

This year, being 1876, V. Tichenor, asked me if I would not let 
him sue John Wright for a divorce for me. I told him no. If he 
wants to depart, let him depart, for a woman is not obliged to give a 
divorce until she disgraces herself as he has done. 

He did not ask me to give him a divorce until the type was being 
set for my book. 

In 1868, after he came home with his bill of divorce finding I had 
got a deed of the homestead and was in possession of it, he did not 
know how to get it from me, so he went to work as the devil usually 
does, by employing an old popish woman to help him. This woman 
was Mrs. McClusky who wanted to live in part of the house for a 
few months until they moved away. I granted them the privelege as 
I did not like to stay alone in my house. 

I did not know that he had got his plans laid with this Jezebel, but 
I found it out to my sorrow. 

The first load Mr. McClusky brought, John Wright came with 
them raging like a mad man, and says to me, what are you doing 
here ? I answered, I live here and take in a little knitting and spin- 
ning to support myself, and as he entered the house he seized the 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 71 

stove-pipe, threw it out doors, and the stove with fire in after it, 
breaking it in pieces, and the spinning wheel also. 

Four or five months before this I bought an old cook-stove for five 
dollars, thinking I could do all the cooking I wanted to do on it, 
which was little enough, and for which I was very thankful for, he 
came and threw that out and broke it. 

At the time he abused me when Mr. McClusky was moving, my 
things lying in the road, I got into the wagon to ride with the young 
man to ask his father if I had to be turned out of my house to let 
them come in for a few months. The neighbors passing and seeing 
my things thrown out wanted to know what it all meant. I told 
them nothing new, for this was the third time that he had driven me 
from my house since he had got his divorce, and three times before he 
got it, without the least cause or reason, for I had not exchanged a 
word with him for several months, only he wanted to let the farm on 
shares, and if I had possession I could draw a share of the 
crops. This family stayed here until March. About two months 
before they went away, Mrs. Howie took me down in a sleigh to see 
if they would let me come and live in part of the house, and Mrs. Mc- 
Clusky said no ; if I came there she would kill me. When they went 
away, John Wright and Mr. Loury each took a load to Waukesha for 
them. I was watching my opportunity, and when I saw them drive 
out of sight, I went to the house and found the house fastened : and 
Lemuel with one of Mr. O'Lary's sons were there — one had a seven- 
shooter, the other a shotgun, The poor boy, with tears running 
down his cheeks said : u Ma don't come in, we do not want to shoot 
you but Pa said we must if you came; for he is afraid you will get 
possession of the homestead." I told him I did not want to go in, 
only hand me my old hat that I left there when he drove me away. 

Job xxvii. 5. God forbid that I should justify you ; till I die, I 



72 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

will not remove my integrity from me. 



I feel it mj duty in all respects, to mention the many acts of kind- 
ness at the hauds of Mrs. Thomas Howie, a christian lad} 7 and a 
member of the U. P. Church. Her home is a home and a resting 
place for all whom she thinks has received the "white stone and the 
new name." Her kindness in protecting me in this inhuman persecu- 
tion ; taking me to her own home, and caring for me in my hopeless- 
ness, as an own mother would have done in this dire extremity to 
which I was driven. I have stayed with her months at a time, and 
on different occasions, and especially did she keep me from the mis- 
ery of a captivity in the county house, even going so far as to lock me 
in a room up stairs when McNaughton came for me, and telling him 
there was no occasion for shutting me up, as I was perfectly harmless, 
and she did not give me up either ; thereby following the golden rule 
of "doing unto others as you would that others should do unto you." 
After I had somewhat recovered from my injury, and having a little 
money,(which in obtaining however, caused several more knots in this 
tangled skein,) which I shall relate in its proper place, I offered it to 
her in partial payment of my indebtedness, but she would take noth- 
ing. Money can never repay the kindly cure that I received from 
her ; but was she not fulfilling the wishes of our Heavenly Father ? 
For does He not say, "even as ye do unto the least of these, even do 
ye so unto me." 

PSALM 46. 

1 God is our refuse and our strength, 
in straits a present aid ; 



WICKEDNESS IX HIGH PLACES. 73 

2 Therefore, although the earth remove, 

we will not be afraid : 
Though hills amidst the seas be cast ; 

3 Though waters roaring make, 

And troubled be ; yea, though the hills 
by swelling seas do shake. 

4 A river is, whose streams do glad 

the city of our God ; 
The holy place, wherein the Lord 
most high has his abode. 

5 God in the midst of her doth dwell ; 

nothing shall her remove : 
The Lord to her an helper will, 
and that right early, drove. 

6 The heathen rag'd tumultuosly, 
the kingdoms moved were : 

The Lord God uttered his voice, 
the earth did melt for fear. 

7 The Lord of hosts upon our side 
doth constantly remain : 

The God of Jacob's our refuge, 
us safely to maintain. 

8 Come, and behold what wondrous works 
have by the Lord been wrought ; 

Come, see what desolations 
he on earth hath brought. 

9 Unto the ends of all the earth 
wars into peace he turns : 

The bow he breaks, the spear he cuts 
in fire the chariot burns. 

10 Be still, and know that I am God ; 

among the heathen I 
Will be exalted ; I on earth 

will be exalted high. 



74 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

11 Our God, who is the Lord of hosts, 

is still upon our side ; 
The God of Jacob our refuge 

forever will abide. 



Now listen and I will tell you of a very transparent trick, which 
two big sap-heads, or what shall I call them ; — the Leaviathen and 
the Lion : or Harvey Rose and old John Wright, .seeking, like those 
scaly, skulking, monsters, to devour a poor, weak minded (as they 
said) woman. One day before the farce of the Indiana divorce ap- 
peared, I was in Waukesha, in Esquire Hawkin's office, and in the 
presence of ten or twelve competent witnesses, that were there to 
witness a bargain between myself and Mr. Rose, that I should have 
the use of the farm for the term of five years, Mr. Rose having a. 
mortgage on the same ; and as, John Wright was gone off I did not 
know where he was : neither did I know as I should ever see him 
again. Eeven William Wright told me that I might as well get a 
divorce, as I would never see him again. And there being ten or 
twelve acres that were not cleared ready for the plow, he told me 
that I might clear it off and have the timber to fence it as all he car- 
ed for was his interest. Soon after this Mr. Welch told me that Mr. 
Shaw would like to buy some hollow basswood logs of me, for broom 
handles, and I sold them to him and he paid me forty dollars at one 
time at Mr. Welch's house, and in the presence of himself, wife, and 
two sons. Twenty eight dollars of this I paid for taxes on the land ; 
and with some of it I bought lime, nails and lath to plaster the house 
and with the remainder I hired the tops of those basswood trees cut 
into cordwood, which after remaining on the ground a year I sold for 
fifty dollars. Mr. Shaw paid me twenty dollars more or less after- 
wards ; aud the remaining timber and tops I sold to a German by 
the name of Schubel. The next Christmas, I beinor at Mrs. Howie's* 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 75 

Mr. Schubel came in with a paper saying that he and I were sum- 
moned to appear before Attorney Cook, to answer to the charge of 
stealing one hundred dollars worth of logs and cord wood, with Mr. 
Rose as plaintiff. And the reason of this as I afterwards heard was 
to get me imprisoned, or to scare me out of the county, so that John 
Wright would not have to pay the county-poor officials (and very 
poor officials they were too). 

The next day I went into my own neighborhood to find out what it 
meant, and Mr. Welch told me that the night before, Chrales Mc- 
Laughlin (who was always working for John Wright's interest) had 
been there and told him to tell me, that if he was in my place he 
would not appear at the trial at all, as Mr. Rose was a rich man 
and would carry it up to the Supreme Court. But I told him I would 
go and prove the slander false, as I did not fear a man that would 
not take God for a backer. 

The day of the trial Esquire Hawkins asked him if he had given 
any one the privolege of cutting wood, and he answered no, no one 
only you (meaning Mr. Hawkins). Hawkins said : Mr. Rose you 
have sworn falsely, and you must take it back or I will have you im- 
prisoned for perjury. Mr. Rose's counsel, Mr. Tichenor said perhaps 
Mr. Rose's memory is treacherous. Hawkins said: "yes very treach- 
erous indeed if he does not remember of reading me a line purporting 
to come from Mrs. Wright that I should deliver the papers which I 
had into his hands but I knew that it was not her hand writing and 
I would not give them to him, and only a few days ago he came and 
threatened me if I did not give up these papers." Tichenor said : 
Mr. Rose I did not understand this case. Hawkins said, of course 
not ; if you had told the truth to Mr. Tichenor he would not have 
dirtied his fingers with your business. Mr. Rose took back his false 
testimony literally fulfilling the saying, "that by thy words thou shalt 



76 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be comdemned." I gained 
the case of course, and they had to pay their own costs, as John 
Wright was chief conspirator, he having returned from his pilgrim- 
age. 

Jude. 1. 13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own 
shame ; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of dark- 
ness for ever. 



PSALM 64. 

12 For certainly God is my king, 
ev'n from the times of old, 

Working in the midst of all the earth 
salvation manifold. 

13 The sea, by the great pow'r to part 
asunder thou didst make ; 

And thou the dragons' heads. Lord, 
within the waters brake. 

14 The leviathan's head thou brak'st 
in pieces, and didst give 

Him to be the meat unto the folk 
in wilderness that live. 

15 Thou clav'st the fountain and the flood, 
which did with streams abound : 

Thou dry'dst the mighty waters up 
unto the very ground. 

16 Thine only is the day, Lord, 
thine also is the night ; 

And thou alone prepared hast 
the sun and shining light. 

17 By thee the borders of the earth 
were settled ev'ry where : 

The summer and the winter both 
by thee created were. 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 77 

18 That th' enemy reproached hath, 
keep it in record : 

And that the foolish people have 
blasphem'd thy name, Lord. 

19 Unto the multitude do not 
thy turtle's soul deliver ; 

The congregation of thy poor 
do not forget for ever. 

20 Uuto thy cov'nant have respect ; 
for earth's dark places be 

Full of the habitations 
of horrid cruelty. 

21 let not those that be oppress'd 
return again with shame : 

Let thoee that poor and needy are, 
give praise unto thy name. 



And now for a new chapter in this wicked plot. This same season 
as I let the place on shares, Attorney Hurlbut told me the very day 
that he put John under bonds that he might be rascal enough to take 
the crops away from me, but he had no right to them, as he had not 
supported me for a year, and as I had let the place before his return 
that I must stack the grain just over the line so that he could not get 
it away from me. But just listen and hear how the devil helps his 
own children ; helping them to choose the tools that will most readily 
do their dirty work, and those who are willing to help persecute a 
poor woman and cheat her out of her share of the crops ; for after 
James Wright hurt me so cruelly, I was put up in the county poor- 
house and chained like a poor criminal, and I told McNaughton that 
he was one of the devil's assistants going around chaining up people 
for on this occasion he made his appearance with hand-cuffs and 



78 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

shackles, took me to the county house and chained down to the bed- 
post until I scarcely knew whether I was dead or alive, but as I had 
no doctor to prescribe for me, with my head and spine so badly in- 
jured, besides so many other bruises, probably they thought that this 
mode of proceeding would insure my death. But again, Providence 
favored me, while the devil deserted them ; but old McNaughton 
thought he was wise in his generation, and as he had been in the ras- 
cality business before for a good many years, — even so far back as 
the time when the Milwaukee and Beloit railroad was first talked of. 
Then he canvassed the town with a bogus mortgage of his own farm 
in his pocket to entice the farmers to do the same. He did not even 
except the insane or the idiot (not myself). But the insane man was 
Mr. Thomas Howie, and the idiot Miss Ede, to which many can 
testify. And as soon as he had accomplished his ends, he destroyed 
his mortgage (it was not recorded). 

And again, his own wife told me that I could not get anything 
done with my affairs while McMaughton and the .present clique were 
in the county-poor business, as they were under the pay of John 
Wright. This is the reason of his being so willing a tool. So you 
can see that it takes a good many strands to make a thread ; even 
so it is with my trouble, they branch out in so many different direc- 
tions, that sometimes it seems as if I could bear no more. But my 
trust is still in my Heavenly Father ; I know that in His own good 
time, He will right all wrongs and render justice unto all, for He is 
both just and merciful. 

I do not think that John Wright has yet received the Grace of re- 
pentance. No longer ago than last winter (1874) he was guilty of 
killing his neighbor's hogs ; and of compelling his son to take down 
his revolver and shoot his neighbor's dog as it was passing the door 
in company with his master. This was done in the presence of sev- 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 79 

eral reliable witnesses, so that it can be proved ; and when in fear of 
being prosecuted he tried to have them promise not to testify against 
him. 

At the time of his throwing out my cook-stove and things into the 
road it was witnessed by Robert Turner and Duncan Cameron (a 
brother of Senator Angus Cameron) ; and after John Wright went 
away Robert Turner and one of Mr. Shields's girls helped me set it 
up again, and John Wright came and threw it out again and drove 
me out and nailed up the windows and doors. 

Jude 1. iv. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were 
before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning 
the grace of our God into laciviousness, and denying the only Lord 
God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. 



This Mr. Hurlbut has been for the last two years our District At- 
torney. He got my papers to put on file at County Clerk's office, 
but he acknowledged to me, that he had not done it, and I made out 
at last to get my papers from him after he had kept them from me 
until they were outlawed, as it was his object, for I heard so after, 
wards. 

In March, 1876. I went to his house and showed him the receipt 
for the money I paid him to settle my business. I asked him if he 
would pay the money back to me, as he had never done anything for 
me. He said, no. Then I asked him if he would not plead a case 
for me, and he said no, he had nothing more to do with it. 

I told him if it was all right, it would be right, and if it was wrong 
it would be wrong to keep my money and not do anything for it. 



80 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

Here is a copy of the receipt. 

Ocononiowoc, May 15, 1868. 
Received of Mrs. Christiana Wright sixty dollars, retainer of fees 
in law matters between her and her husband. 

[seal] E. Hurlbut. 

You see John and James Wright's large sum of money looked 
larger in his eyes than my small sum. 

Luke 21 . And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their 
gifts into the treasury. 

2 And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two 
mites. 

3 And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow 
hath cast in more than they all : 

4 For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings 
of God : but she of her penury hath cast in all the living she had. 



After waiting six or seven years for county officers to do something 
for me, the last answer I received was when Judge Griswold was 
elected. Mr. Rhodes (one of the officers) told me they would do 
nothing about it until I signed a paper that I would not carry it any 
higher, but leave it to the three county officers to settle. You see 
they were afraid that I was going to get a little justice, when Judge 
Griswold was elected. I told Mr. Rhodes that I had only been call- 
ed insane, but I am sure that my children would have reason to say, 
''my mother is an idiot" for signing such a paper. It has been well 
known for years that these men have been John Wright's friends. 



WICKEDNDSS IN HIGH PLACES. 81 



PSALM 72. 



Give the king thy judgments, God, and thy righteousness unto 
the king's son. 

2 He shall judge the people with righteousness, and thy poor with 
judgment. 

Prov. xxx. 8. Remove far from me vanity and lies ; give me 
neither poverty nor riches ; feed me with food convenient for me. 

Psalm xc. 17. Let the beauty of the Lord of our God be upon 
us ; and establish thou the work of our hands upon us : yea, the 
work of our hands establish thou it. 



In reading the divorce you will observe that I never tried to get 
my children ; that is as false as a great many other things that are 
sworn to. I went a number of times for them and the door would 
be slamed in my face. 

This is a copy of a letter which will prove that I did try to get 
them. 

Waukesha, March 25, 1868. 
Mrs. Christiana Wright, John Wright's wife, called on me to tako 
counsel in reference to her children ; she is entitled to the custody of 
her children, and they must be given up or legal proceedings will be 
taken to obtain the custody. 

Yours truly 

R. K. Menges, Att'y at Law. 



All Bible readers know what belongs to an elder, and now I will 



82 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

tell you how Elder Wright treated me after coming home from the 
asylum. The same winter I came home I was at church, and I 
spoke to my younger boy and said to him, would you like to come 
home with mama ? With that William Wright took me by the arms 
and jamed me back against the church and shook and held me for 
some time, and left me with bruised spots on my arms which lasted 
for more than a week ; but that is not what did me the most harm, it 
was the fright that hurt me, thinking I would have to go back to that 
place of cruelty. 

Helena Johnson whispered to me and told me to go home with her 
that night, for they were trying to make a fuss so they could take me 
back to the asylum. 

Gal. iii. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things 
which are written in the book of law to do them. 

Is it according to the scripture that an elder must go to Europe 
to stay all summer, when he knows that there is business to be set- 
tled in session during that summer? 

August 21, 1876 ; and is it according to scripture that an elder 
must circulate a false report against a neighbor. It can be proved 
that William Wright, has reported that Mr. Rose has a mortgage 
against John Wright's farm, which Mr. Rose declares to be false. 

Waukesha ; — Rose foreclosed his mortgage aud I am informed 

that he bid off the property described in said mortgage and holds said 

property at this time. 

W. S. Hawkins. 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 83 

I heared from good authority last winter, being Nov. 1875, that the 
mortgage to Mr. Rose had all been paid up, and John Wright had 
given James Wright a $5,000 mortgage, so that I could not do any- 
thing by law. 

As James Wright has left this world and gone to another I wonder 
who John will have to hold false mortgages now. 



PSALM LXXXIII. 

3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consult- 
ed against thy hidden ones. 

4 They have said, come, and let us cut them off from being a na- 
tion ; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. 

5 For they have conslted together with one consent : they are 
confederate against thee : 

6 The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites ; of Moab, and 
Hagerenes ; 

19 They went out from us, but they were not of us ; if they had 
been of us, they would no doubt have continued with as : but they 
went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all 
of us. 



The last account I had of the Wright family was a short time ago, 
William Wright sent William Foster to ask me if I would not take 
the use of 22 acres of land and settle up everything. I told him 
no ; I wanted two hundred dollars a year for the use of my home- 
stead that they had taken from me for the last eight years. I do 
not consider the 22 acres of any account as the land is very rough 
and stony, and the fences poor, and no wood on the place so I do 



84 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

not see how I could make a living on it, The house is* very old and 
has been inhabited so long by bed-bugs that I would not dare try to 
stay one night in it. 

I was not to have the deed of it, only the use of it, and of course 
I should have to pay the taxes. 

Job xx. 19. Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the 
poor ; because he hath violently taken away an house which he 
builded not. James v. 4. Behold the hire of the laborers which have 
reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth ; 
and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of 
the Lord of Saboath. Prov. xxi. 6. The getting of treasures by a 
lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death. 



PSALM 147. 

16 Hoar frosts, like ashes, scatt'reth he ; 

like wool he snow doth give ; 

17 Like morsels casteth forth his ice ; 

who in its cold can live ? 

18 He sendeth forth his mighty word, 

and melteth them again ; 
His winds he makas to blow, and then 
the waters flow amain. 



You will notice that one of the witnesses of the divorce was Mar- 
tha McLaughlin. Who is she and where did she come from ? She is 
not any body and she came from Canada. She had a child by her 
half-brother and it lived to be a few months old when it was found 
dead in the bed, and there was an inquest held over the body. 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 85 

This can be proved by people who came from the same place that 
she did. 

Matt. xv. 19, 20. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, 
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 

Some say that the truth is not to be told at all times, but my bi- 
ble teaches me to "tell the truth and lie not." 

It is thought by people that if John Wright could get a divorce 
from me he would marry Mrs. Martha McLaughlin. 



PSALM 35. 

4 Let them confounded be and sham'd 

that for my soul have sought : 
Who plot my hurt tum'd back be they, 
and to confusion brought. 

5 Let them be like unto the chaff 

that flies before the wind ; 

And let the angel of the Lord 

pursue them hard behind. 

15 But in my treuble they rejoic'd, 

gath'ring themselves together : 
Yea, abjects vile together did 

themselves against me gather. 
I knew not ; they did me tear, 

and quiet would not be. 

16 With mocking hypocrits, at feasts 

they gnash' d their teeth at me. 

PSALM 149. 

Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his 
praise in tha congregation of saints. 

2 Let Israel rejoice in him that made him : let the children of 



86 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

Zion be joyful in their King. 

3 Let them praise his name in the dance : let them sing praises 
unto him with the timbrel and harp. 

4 For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people ; he will beautify 
meek with salvation. 

5 Let the saints be joyful in glory ; let them sing aloud upon their 
beds. 

6 Let the high praises of Grod be in their mouth, and a twoedged 
sword in their hand ; 

7 To execute vengence upon the heathen, and punishments upon 
the people ; 

8 To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of 
iron ; 

9 To execute upon them the judgment written : this honor have 
all his saints. Praise ye the Lord. 



Matt. v. 24. Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy 
way ; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy 
gift. Eph. iv. 2. With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suf- 
fering, forbearing one another in love. Ver. 32. And be ye kind 
to one another, tender-hearted,, forgiving one another, even as God 
for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Rom. xii. 17. Recompense 
to no man evil for evil. — Ver. 20. Therefore if thine enemy hun- 
ger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink : for in so doing thou 
shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Ver. 21. Be not overcome 
of evil, but overcome evil with good. 

1 Thess. v. 14. Now we exhort you, bretheren, warn them that 
are unruly, comfort the feeble minded, support the weak, be patient 
toward all men. Job xxxi. 19. If I have seen any perish for want 
of clothing, or any poor without covering ; Uer. 20. If his loins 
have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of 
my sheep. Matt. xxv. 35. For I was an hungered, and ye gave 
me meat, : I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, 
and ye took me in : Ver. 36. Naked, and ye clothed me : I was 
sick, and ye visited me : I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 
Prov. xxxi 8. Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all 
such as are appointed to .destruction. Ver. 9. Open thy mouth, 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 87 

judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy. 

Mai. ii. 14. Yet ye say, Wherefore ? Because the Lord hath 
been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom 
thou hast dealt treacherously : yet is she thy companion, and thy 
covenant. Ver. 15. And did he not make one ? Yet had he the 
residue of the Spirit. And wherefore one ? That he might seek a 
godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal 
treacherously against the wise of his youth. Matt. xix. 5. And 
said: For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall 
cleave to his wife : and they twain shall be one flesh. 

Mai. ii. 16 For the Lord, the God of Israel, said that he hateth 
putting away : for one covereth violence with ' his garment, saith the 
Lord of hosts, therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not 
treacherously. Matt. v. 32. But I say unto you, that whosoever 
shall put away his wife, saying for the cause of fornication, causeth 
her to commit adultery : and whosoever shall marry her that is di- 
vorced committeth adultery. 

1 Cor. vii.12. But to the rest speak I, not the Lord ; if any 
brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell 
with him, let him not put her away. Ver. 13. And the woman 
which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to 
dwell with her, let her not leave him. 

Ps.lxxiv. 18. Remember this, that the enemy hath reproeched, 
O Lord, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name. 
Ver. 22. Arise, God, plead thine own cause : remember how the 
foolish man reproacheth the daily. Ver. 23. Forget not the voice of 
thine enemies : the tumult of those that rise up against thee increas- 
eth. continually. 

2 Kings xix. 15. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and 
said, Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubim, 
thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth : 
thou hast made heaven and earth. Ver. 16. Lord, bow down 
thine ear, and hear : open, Lord, thine eyes, and see ; and hear the 
words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living 
God. , 

2 Chron. xx6. And (Jehosaphat) said, Lord God of our fath- 
ers, art not thou God in heaven ? and rulest not thou over all the 
kingdoms of the heathen ? and in thine hand is there not power and 
might, so that none is able to withstand thee ? Ver. 10. And now, 



05 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

behold, the children of Amnion, and Moab, and Mount Seir, whom 
thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land 
of Egypt, but they turned from them and destroyed them not ; Yer. 
11. Behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of 
thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit. Ver. 12. 
our God, wilt thou not judge them ? for we have no might against us; 
neither know we what to do : but our eyes are upon the. Ps. lxxx- 
iii. throughout. Keep not thou silence. God ; hold not thy 
peace &c. Ps. czl. 4. Keep me, Lord, from the hands of the 
wicked ; preserve me from the violent man, who have purposed to 
overthrow my doings. Yer. 8. Grant not. Lord, the desires of 
the wicked ; further not his wicked device, lest they exalt themselves. 
Selah. 

Ps. lxxxi. 11. But my people would not hearken to my voice ; 
and Israel would none of me. Yer. 12. So I gave them up unto 
their own hearts' lust : and they walked in their own counsels. 

John xvii. 15. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of 
the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 

Ps. li. 10. Create in me a clean heart, God ; and renew a 
right spirit within me. Ps. cxix. 133. Order my steps in thy 
word : and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. 

Cor. xi. 7. And least I should be exalted above measure through 
the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in 
the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exal- 
ted above measure. Yer. 8. For this thing I besought the Lord 
thrice, that it might depart from me. 

1 Cor. x. 12. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take 
heed lest he fall. Yer. 13. There hath no temptation taken you 
but such as is common to man : but God is faithful, who will not suf- 
fer you to be tempted above that ye are able ; but will with the 
temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear 
it. 

Heb. xiii. 20. Now the God of peace, that brought again from 
the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through 
the blood of the everlasting covenant. Yer. 21. Make you perfect 
in every good work to do his will, working in you that wich is well- 
pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ ; — 

2Cor. xiii. 7. Now I pray to God that ye do no evil ; not that 
we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is hon- 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. Stf 

est, though we be as reprobates. Ver 9. For we are glad when we 
are weak, and ye are strong : and this also we wish, even your 
perfection. 

Rom. xvi. 20. And God of peace shall bruise Satan under your 
feet shortly. — Zech. iii. 2. And the Lord said unto Satan, The 
Lord rebuke thee. Satan ; even the Lord that hath chosen Jeru- 
salem rebuke thee : is not this a brand plucked out of the fire ? Luke 
xxii. 31. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath de- 
sired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat : Ver. 32. But I 
have prayed for thee, that thy faith failed not : and when thou art 
converted, strengthen thy brethren. 

John xvii. 15. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of 
the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 1 Thess. 
v. 23. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly : and I 
pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blame- 
less unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Rom. xv. 30. Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus 
Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together 
with me in your prayers to God for me. 

2. Chron. xiv. 11. And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and 
said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or 
with them that have no power : help us, Lord our God ; for we 
rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. Lord 
thou art our God ; let no man prevail against thee. 

1 Cor. xiv. 16. Else, when thou shalt bless with the spirit, 
how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at 
thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest ? 
Rev. xxii. 20. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come 
quickly . Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Ver. 21. The 
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. 



90 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 



THE HISTORY OF A WOMAN IN A TRANCE. 



PSALM XXIV. 

7 Ye Gates, lift up your heads on high ; 

je doors that last for aye, 
Be lifted up, that so the King 
of glory enter may. 

8 But who of glory is the King ? 

The mighty Lord is this : 
Ev'n that same Lord, that great in might 
and strong in battle is. 

This is the psalm I sung the morning I went to the asylum. 



In the year 1864, I was in a trance. I think it was caused by be- 
ing compelled to take strychnine. It was ordered for me by Mr. Van- 
Nostrum, the Superintendent of the Wisconsin Insane Asylum. I 
refused to take it, but the attendant said if I did not she would hold 
my nose and force me to take it. As John Wright gave him one 
hundred dollars to take me in without legal process I suppose he 
thought he would get me out of the way as quickly as possible ; 
fearing that he might be found out and disrharged, — as he was soon 
after I returned home. 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 91 

I do not know how many days I was in this trance, but I know 
that when I went there the corn was not through the ground in the 
garden near the building where I was confined and when I awoke 
from this trance the corn was over a foot high. 

The Superintendent thought I was dead and wrote to my husband 
to that effect and wanted to know where he wished me buried. He 
told my sister that a hole in the ground in one place was as good as 
another. — He had forgotten what Abraham said concerning his wife 
Sarah — "the dust of God's people was precious in God's sight." 

PSALM XXV. 

14 The secret of the Lord is with 

such as do his name ; 
And he his holy covenant 
will manifest to them. 

15 Towards the Lord my waiting eyes 

continually are set ; 
For he it is that shall bring forth 
my feet out of the net. 

I will now state a few things that I saw in the trance. 

It was told to me that President Lincoln was soon to be killed. 
About the French war. That Rev. Robert Johnson was soon going 
to leave his Church which he was pastor of. This was unexpected 
as Covenanter ministers are placed for life. 

I had a beloved sister that left this world and went to a better one, 
about twenty-five years before. I saw, and conversed with her ; 
and inquired of her if I were ever going in there, as she was in heav- 
en, and I was just outside of the door. She said yes, but not yet. 
You must go back on earth and do a great deal of good before you 
oan come in here, for this is the highest heaven — where martyrs live. 



92 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

She said I must go back and tell them how to stop the s war, for the 
blood of God's people is running like water. I asked her how and she 
said as it reads in Joel : "Proclaim a fast and entreat the Lord." 

Joel ii. 3. Rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn 
unto the Lord your God ; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to 
anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 

I saw a great company sitting in heaven, and heared them singing 
about Moses and the Lamb who had redeemed them. It was the 
sweetest music I ever heard. It sounded like "Old Hundred" or 
"St. Martin," only it was a great deal sweeter than I ever heard it 
sung before. I asked my sister who it was and she said it was the 
martyrs of Scotland that suffered martyrdom for the crown rights of 
Christ. 

It reminded me of Mary and Martha. When we were young I 
was bothered with many things, while she was spending her time 
with doing good and making ready for a better world. She is reap- 
ing her reward in heaven now, while I am yet here trying to do 
good. 

While I was in this trance I saw Mr. Finley McNaughton and 
Mr. Rose. They appeared to me like devils, and hideous serpents. 
A good many others were shown to me but I will not mention them 
now, as they were the worst looking ones. This was before I knew 
any thing of McNaughton : but when I got acquainted with him 
he proved to be just what I had seen him. 

It showed me how the wicked were going to be punished. 
They were placed around as if in a ring and chained fast. I saw 
Dr. Cannon's face in the sun and the sun went down. 

When I was in this trance I saw Rev. R. Hutchinson, and it was 
told me that he was the father of ages. I also saw Rev. Robert 
Johnson coming toward the asylum with three crowns on His head ; 



WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 93 

came in and went into the sewing room. There is always a line on 
the table like a clothes-line. He took it and made it into a whip, 
and whipped the Superintendent with it and drove him out. When 
I came back I told Rev. Mr. Johnson, and told it to my friends and 
neighbors. But John Wright was the same then as now, saying 
that I was insane, and must not pay any attention to what I said. 
[Perhaps it is all for the best that he calls me insane, for there has 
never been any law passed prohibiting insane people from speak- 
ing their mind.] It was told me that John Wright was going to the 
State prison, and from there to the asylum. I thougut I saw him 
and he looked like a porcupine. He was in the lower ward, and it 
was told me that he was going to stay there forever, and was going 
to die there. 

I saw my father and mother and conversed with them. Father 
said if they did not let me out of the asylum, the sun would go down 
on them ; and as I felt very bad about being separated from my chil- 
dren, mother said there would be a persecution and after that I would 
have my children. 

I told these things to John and he thought he would put me in Mc- 
Naughton's prison, to see if I could not say something better about 
him. But the last vision I had of him he had a lion's head on. 

Revelation. Chapter 11. — And there was given me a reed like 
unto a rod : and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the 
temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. 

Chapter 1. Ver. 9. I John, who also am your brother, and 
companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience 
of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of 
God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. 

10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a 
great voice, as of a trumpet. 

II Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last : and, 



94 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches 
which are in Asia ; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto 
Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodi- 
cea. 

12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And be- 
ing turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks ; 

13 And in the midst of seven candlesticks one like unto the Son 
of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the 
paps with a golden girdle. 

14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as 
snow ; and his eyes were as a flame of fire ; 

15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a fur- 
nace ; and his voice as the sound of many waters- 

16 And he had in his right hand seven stars : and out of his 
mouth went a sharp twoedged sword : and his countenance was as 
the sun shineth in his strength. 

17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid 
his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not ; I am the first 
and the last : 

18 I am he that liveth, and was dead ; and, behold, I am alive 
forevermore, Amen ; and have the keys of hell and of death. 

19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which 
are, and the things which shall be hereafter ; 

20 The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right 
hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the 
angels of the seven churches : and the seven candlesticks which thou 
sawest are the seven churches. 



WICKEDiYESS IN HIGH PLACES. 95 

I am now about to bring this Pamphlet to a close. As the rod is 
for the fools back, so when I married John Wright, I married him 
for life, and promised to do all I could for his good till death parted 
us. Notwithstanding John has broken his vows I will try to keep 
mine. He was one of the handsonest young men I ever saw when I 
was engaged ; but as you know love has no eyes, it puts me in mind 
of the song I used to sing — "The only one enticeth me is Irish John- 
ny 0." (It used to be Molly but I changed it to Johnny.) 

You know potato-blossoms are very sweet, but they do not last 
long, and not many to mourn when they are gone. 'That is what I 
think about John, as he is Irish. As it stands in history, — "Scotch 
for honor, Irish for deceit, and English for what they eat." John 
reminds me of Ephriam, who was pleasant in his youth, but commit- 
ted so much sin that God gave him up. And like Cain, God has 
taken away his countenance. 

PSALM LXXXIII. 

14 As the fire burneth wood, and as the flame setteth the moun- 
tains on fire : 

15 So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid 
with thy storm. 

16 Fill their faces with shame ; that they may seek thy name, 
Lord. 

17 Let them be confounded and troubled for ever ; yea, let them 
be pnt to shame, and perish : 

18 That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHO- 
VAH, art the Most High over all the earth. 

You may see some mistakes, and some left out, but I lay this to 
the devil. One of his servants took upon himself the form of a boy, 
and stole part of the munuscript. 

As half-whipped children are always cross, if this rod does not 



96 WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 

have the effect to bring John to repentance, I will print a larger book, 

and tell the whole story, and teil all the truth for this is not half as 

bad as it is. 

Christiana Wright. 

Prov. xxx. 8. Remove far from me vanity and lies ; give me 
neither poverty nor riches : feed me with food convenient for me. 



PSALM XXIV. 

3 Who is the man that shall ascend 

into the hill of God ? 
Or who within his holy place 
shall have a firm abode ? 

4 Whose hands are clean, whose heart i-s pure, 

and unto vanity 
Who hath not lifted up his soul, 
nor sworn deceitfully. 



PSALM XLV. 

1 My heart" brings forth a goodly thing ; 

my words tij^t I indite 
Concern the King : my toungUe's a pen 
of one that swift doth write. 

2 Thou fairer art than sons of men : 

into thy lips is store 
Of grace infus'd : God therefore thee 
hath bless'd for evermore. 

3 thou art the mighty One, 

thy sword gird on thy thy ; 
Ev'n with thy glory excellent, 
and with thy majesty. 

End of volume one 



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